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METHODIST 
 
 OR, 
 
 FRIENDLY, CHRISTIAN ADVICE, 
 To those^ M-ethodists, 
 
 Who indulge in extravagant rt I i i i g;iuiw amotions and 
 bodily exercises. 
 
 BY A WESLEYAN METHODIST. 
 
 *' Let all things be done decently and in order, unto edification : 
 for God is not tlie author of confusion, but of peace." 
 
 " AUDI AI.TERAM PARTEM." 
 
 T»UBI.ISHED BY D. & E. TENTON, AND SOLD lil' THE 
 J<x>k8ellers generally in the U. States. 
 1819. 
 
DISTRICT OF XEW-JERSEY, ss. 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, Tliat on the second day of January, in tlie forty- 
 third year of the independence of the United States of America, DANIEL & E. 
 FENTON, of the said District, ^ liave deposited ^n this office the title of a book 
 the right whereof they *cfa\m aV proprietors, in the words following, to wit: 
 
 " Methodist Error ; or fi-iendly Christian Advice, to those Methodists who indulge 
 *' in extravagant emotions and bodily exercises. Ey a Weslcyan Methodist. Let 
 " all things be done decently and in order, unto edification ; for God is not the 
 " author of confusion but of peace." Audi alteram partem." 
 
 In conformity to an act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An act for 
 the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books 
 to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mention- 
 ed." And also to the act, entitled, An act supplementary to the act entitled, 
 *' An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, 
 Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times 
 therein mentioned and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, 
 engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 
 
 CL. S.) WILLIAM PENNINGTON, 
 
 Clei k of the District of New-Jersey, 
 
THE PUBLISHERS' ADDRESS. 
 
 IT is not the design of the' publishers to as- 
 sume any responsibility for tliis work. The 
 press being free, they have published it as 
 freely as they would any other similar, or 
 counter work, of equally respectable composi- 
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 they been so inclined, would not have deterred 
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 that very many, have expressed a wish to see 
 the present topics fairly discussed : and the 
 present work, they are inclined to believe, may 
 serve as a proper introduction. They take 
 therefore this occasion to intimate, that if their 
 readers or friends desire to suggest any im- 
 provements, or valid objections, their written 
 communications, post paid, shall receive due 
 attention, in any future edition. ^ 
 
 Any respectable publisher, who wishes to 
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 country, will find no difficulty to gain the as- 
 sent of the proprietors, on making due appli- 
 cation to them in Tl*enton, 
 
iv TilE PUBLISHEES' ADDRESS. , 
 
 / 
 
 To accommodate distant purchasers.A^lio may 
 choosft to remit money per mail, tj»^ will re- 
 ceive tWitcurrent money of their cduntry, if they 
 cannot sewd such as is at par in Philadelphia. 
 They will gi^the work aUThe following rates, 
 to wit: a single em^y bemg 50 cents, they who 
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 dollars 11 copies ;/ioK^ dollars 24 copies; 
 equal to 8 copies/^atis. ^^ey will be packed 
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 EM 
 
 Trentoj}^^'^!^* Ut.Jh!tnmrij) 1819. 
 
 ENTON. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Methodist Reader. 
 
 THIS little book is written speciallif for your be- 
 nefit. The author has no pecuniary interest in its 
 sale, nor any party end to answer. He is one of 
 your brethren of long and approved standing among 
 you ; and his sole motive in the present work is to 
 do good : to point out the way of error, that you 
 may shun it ; and to show the way of God, that you 
 may walk therein* 
 
 He has seen with much pain and regret some 
 signs of enthusiasm and error crept into our churchy 
 which should have been checked by those who were 
 mv overseers in the Lord. He verily believes that 
 they should have restrained and nof fostered the un- 
 profitable emotions of screaming, hallowing and 
 jumping, and the stepping and singing of senseless,, 
 merry airs. These have often prejudiced true and 
 vital religion. And because no man hath hitherto re- 
 garded these things, in this way, the aulhor, how- 
 ever deficient in his task, is disposed to contribute 
 his mite towards the suppress^ion of a growing eviL 
 The following pages therefore, contain his viewa 
 upon the subject : and he is pleased to add, they 
 are supported, by many very powerful arguments 
 from those great lights of our infant church. Johfi 
 and Charles Wesley, John Fletcher^ Drw A.^ Clarkej 
 mA athers* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 He has endeavoured so to write as that no soher 
 minded and candid christian may condemn him. 
 He is sure he feels nothing contrary to love and 
 charity, and he has a fond persuasion, that even 
 many of those who have been honestly misled, will 
 not be offended at the manner of his arguments, 
 drawn as they are from scripture and reason, with 
 the laudable motive of bringing them back into 
 the sober path of good old Wesleijan Methodism. 
 
 He entreats all those who are interested in the sub- 
 ject matter of this work, to give it their candid atten^ 
 Hon, If you love truth, fear not to try it. Truth 
 must bear the strictest scrutiny. " Audi alteram 
 partem," (hear both sides) is a wise maxim conse- 
 crated by experience. Mark how our church has 
 already sanctioned this sentiment ! — " It is desir- 
 ed,'^ says the resolution of the first Methodist con- 
 ference which ever met, (in 1744) that we meet 
 as little children who have every thing to learn; 
 tSiat every point may be examined to tlie founda- 
 tion. Need we fear this ? of overturning our first 
 principles ? ^ayj if they are false the sooner 
 they are overturned the better : If they are true, 
 they will bear the strictest examination. Let us 
 all then pray for a willingness to receive light, to 
 know of every doctrine whether it be of God." 
 May we their children, neglect rules of action j 
 so sound as these ! ' 
 
 Dr. A. Clarke in his advice to preachers," has 
 said, « do not think, that this or that one, cannot 
 instruct you. He may be xveak — but the meanest of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 God's sending will be directed to bring something 
 to the wisest and holiest christians.'' 
 
 The great and good Whitfield, himself, confessed 
 very penitently, that " he had been too rash in many 
 things. I have often been too bitter in my ^eal; wild 
 fire has been mixed with it — and I find,'* says he, 
 " I have frequently written and spoken in my own 
 spirit ; have mistaken nature for grace ; imagination 
 for revelation : even when I thought I was acting 
 with the assistance of the spirit of God." Even 
 both John and Charles Wesley were once too prone 
 to mysticism ; <^ with that poisonous mysticism," as 
 John Wesley called it, ^' which not a little tainted 
 us before we went to America." 
 
 The great Locke, than whom, no man has more 
 deeply looked into the ground of error and prejudice, 
 has said, <^ he that does not give a patient hearing, 
 and weighs not the arguments on the other side, does 
 in fact, ccmfess that it is prejudice which governs 
 him ; and he seeks not the evidence of truth, but 
 some lazy anticipation, or beloved presumption, on 
 which he desires to rest undisturbed J* ^ 
 
 Finally, brethren, prove all thing; holdfast 
 that which is good" ! Remembering what the 
 Proverbs say, " He that refuseth instruction des- 
 piseth his own soul ; but, he that heareth reproof 
 getteth^inderstanding." 
 
 • I will remark once for all ; that the quotations which will he found 
 in this work, although faithful as to substance^ are not always in the 
 precise method or order of the original. The aim has been to give on all 
 such occasions, the seme in the fe-west words — solely for the sake of 
 brevity, > ^ ^ ^ ✓ , . 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AS Methodists, we have all long known, 
 that there has been considerable division of 
 sentiment among us, respecting the character 
 of our religious exercises. The more sober 
 and steady, have been advocates for the literal 
 observance of edification , decency ^ and 
 order and these we all kpow have always 
 been the major part. The minor part, have 
 been, on the contrary, very zealous for the li- ' 
 teral practice of shouting, leaping and jump- 
 ingy and other outward signs of the most heed- 
 less emotion. These views so diametrically 
 opposite to each other, evince the prevalence 
 of error somewhere : both ceyipot^ be right. 
 That g^few .of such naisy christians have here- 
 tofore given Methodist meetings a character^ 
 contrary to the sense of much the greater part 
 of the societies, we have all seen and known : 
 
10 
 
 METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 because, turbulence from its nature, must 
 sound greater to ordinary hearers^ than the 
 calmer piety of those, who as St. Paul enjoins, 
 
 study to be quiet." That part of the society 
 too, have been not only zealous to preach and 
 exhort to these actions and emotions, but have 
 actually published books, to propagate their 
 opinions and practices. 
 
 With these views of the matter, the present 
 writer, has been induced to offer other views 
 of the subject. These thoughts are not the 
 hasty ebulition of the moment ; they have oc- 
 casionally engaged his consideration and at- 
 tention for several years : and indeed, all that 
 he now presents to his reader, is but the ar- 
 rangement of various notes and readings made 
 at various times aifd occasions, without the re- 
 motest view to present publication : and now, 
 I cannot pretend with a publisher of opposite 
 sentiments, that I am supernaturally'^ im-* 
 pelled to my task : — For I do not expect, that, 
 where the gifts common to christians— ;;u(Z^- 
 ment, reas o^ nd written revelation, are alrea- 
 dy sufficient, there will be any extraordinary 
 endowment conferred — but seeing that *^ the 
 world by its wisdom knows not Grod, neither 
 indeed can — and that spiritual things are spiri- 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 11 
 
 tually discerned/' I will frankly expose llie 
 grounds of my pretentions to any knowledge 
 in this matter : and then I shall proceed to 
 present those considerations to the mind of the 
 reader, which are the object of this publica- 
 tion. 
 
 I kaow then, that God by his grace, several 
 years since, was pleased to change my heart, 
 by the influence of his spirit, from a state of 
 nature to a state of grace ; that he did this, by 
 giving me due convictions of my utter sinful- 
 ness by nature and practice, and then shewing 
 me lively tokens of his reconciliation and fa- 
 vour, by causing me from the time of change, 
 to overcome the sins which did before most 
 easily beset me. Since then, times out of num- 
 ber, I have felt the fellowship of the Holy 
 Ghost, the Comforter, by his softening, com- 
 forting, and gracious impressions, filling the 
 heart with joy and gladness. But 1 have never 
 been excited to any strong emotions, which I 
 could not v^^ivviiw, because! have always been 
 Si free agent ; and T have therefore never lost 
 a sense of " decency nor have ever for- 
 gotten to watch my actions, so as to save my 
 " good from being evil spoken of," nor that I 
 was enjoined " to havd a good report from 
 those which are^i£ii/i£?wt but aiming in all 
 
±2 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 things at " sobriety, gravity/^ and sound 
 speech," which cannot be condemned by him i 
 that is of the contrary fart, that thereby op- 
 posers to vital religion, might be ashamed, 
 having no evil to say of me." But with im- I 
 pressions like these, I never forsook the most 
 irregular meetings of others : but being a man 
 open to conviction and earnest for the truth, I I 
 have always been sincerely willing to see and 
 I to acknowledge the real work of the spirit. | 
 
 i I have valued my soul as of much more worth, 
 
 j than the miserable gratification of doing any 
 
 1 thing, ov forbearing any thing, for the sake of 
 
 ..4*vX ^Wlr-i securing the approbation of mere worldly men. | 
 /^*%f!f^£j [,ave scarce expected God's children to be 
 
 still -horn, or that those who love God much, i 
 ; should be in favour with the careless world, 
 
 I 1 know I could submit to any exposure and 
 
 I evil revilings for the sake of pleasing my God f 1 
 
 if it were required; and I know it, by this sure 
 evidence, that while yet a man of the world, 
 accustomed to its honours and its pleasures, in 
 its more refined forms, 1 most cordially chose ( 
 to have my name cast out as evil," from ! 
 among my former friends, and to join " the 
 sect every where spoken against" as my better 
 portion ; and 1 have* hitherto continued with 
 them in their reproach, althongh I have seen 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 13 
 
 thin gs to condemn. Am I then less quali- 
 fiedto judgeof these things, than those of 
 my brethren who have assumed to them- 
 selves the same privilege of judging and ad- 
 vising? I trust not. I suppose too, I have a 
 charter privilege in the hook of Discipline, 
 which allows every Methodist to watch 
 over each other in love, and to help each 
 other'^ by advice. I proceed therefore to 
 give my opinion. I am no oracle, and claim 
 only to be heard as any other man. ^ 
 In treating of my subject, I purpose j^rs^ M 
 to consider and to review in general terms, ^ ^ 
 the conduct, character and pretension of ^vf 
 those of our brethren who exercise in the \^ ^ 
 way to which I am now to file my excep- \ ^ | 
 tions. • V 
 
 Then I shall more particularly consider 
 in detail all those passages of the old Tes- 
 tament which are supposed to countenance 
 the things in question, endeavouring to show 
 their real import, and the misconception of 
 those who have so used them. 
 
 Then I shall proceed, to notice the power , 
 and influence of religion as spoken of in the 
 gospels, before the ascension of our Lord and ^ 
 the decent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
14 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 Then will follow of course, that I consi* 
 der the deportment, character and habits of 
 christians after the ascension, and when the 
 Spirit, the Comforter, actually influenced the 
 first christians ; and by their example, I 
 shall contend we ought to be influenced and 
 regulated now. 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ACCORDING to the foregoing arrange- 
 ment, I proceed now to consider, first the 
 conduct of our brethren whose exercises I 
 condemn. 
 
 I believe in the fact, that sinners do some- ^^c:^'^- 
 times cry for mercy under the " sense of ^"^Z^' 
 the weight and burden of sins (as the church ^j^^ j^^ -^/^ 
 service expresses it) too intolerable to be A^/- 
 borne;" and I believe, when some convictions ^^l^^ /^^ 
 are thus powerful, they will be proportion- ^ 
 ably expressive of their joy at deliverance. 
 But I do not believe, that these, or any '^/^J^,S.l 
 other people, will be graciously led into the 
 like excessive feelings and outward signs, 
 in all their future ordinary meetings.* When 
 
 * I wish my reader to bear constantly in his mind j^^'^ — 
 this general remark ! My book is not a gainst the <rj^t»t^ ^^el 
 actions or expressions of convicted sinners, but v^-*-' <i^»^ 
 against converted christians. In my remarks at the 
 close of Mr. Wesley's objections in the appendix, I 
 have explicitly said , saints may observe St. Paul's rules 
 of decorum an^ restraint, but sinners, iMP<? rarely— I 
 tolerate -s iniiers? concerns and expressiofe"arT)otir 
 irresistible and reluctant. Unseemly actions from 
 suchj who were j«st before avowed enemies to them j 
 
IS METHODIST 
 
 1 see such thin2;s occur, my observation and 
 experience of their general deportment in- 
 clioes me to think as Mr. John Wesley 
 did, that they are but *^ honest, well meaning 
 persons, who really feel the love of God in 
 their hearts, but have little experience either 
 of the ways of God, or the devices of Satan ; 
 so he serves himself of their simplicity^ in 
 order to wear them out, and to bring a dis- 
 credit on the work of God." They aim to 
 affect irregular meetings as most affecting 
 their feelings ; not considering that where 
 there are no extraordinary convicted per- 
 sons, there is no cause to make the effect 
 they seek. Such persons, in my opinion^ 
 learn sihahitof vehemence; they see example^ 
 and they sometimes hear of precept from 
 those who should be their teachers of better 
 
 and scoffers, scarce want an apology. I am disposed 
 to think, that it is from an inattention to this just 
 discrimination, that we see some saints affecting to 
 make irregular meetings as their duty, when in fact 
 they must proceed, if at all, from sinners who cannot 
 well help themselves, or but very imperfectly and 
 feeblj — and especially, if Satan much urges their 
 Gondemnation. . 
 
METHODIST EBBOB. 
 
 if*^ 'fU*-' ' 
 
 things. I If we inspect teem closely,^ we 
 - discern that they are mostly persons of 
 credulous, uninformed minds; who, before 
 their change to grace, had been of rude edu- 
 cation and careless of those prescribed forms 
 I of good manners and refinement, of which 
 polite education is never divested — and 
 which indeed, religion ought to cherish. [See o 
 Dr. Clarke in the appendix : he says, civi- vjt^Aj 
 ligation and piety must go hand in hand, &c. y^^^. 
 and also, the Thoughts on our obligations toj*^"^ "^ 
 ^ acquire judgment and knowledge.] [ They 
 « fancy, that all the restraints of conduct : 
 P viz. " sobriety, gravity ^nd blameless- 
 ness,^' is ^ formality^ and resistance of the 
 Spirit : and so to avoid ^j^ihey seem rather i^^^'^ 
 to go to the other extreme, and actually run 
 before it. In such cases and persons, they 
 never seem to coiifiider it possible that Satan 
 ^ may have any power or subtlety, to olffer his 
 If aid in their sensations, or as an angel of light. 
 Yet we know he can ! [See John Wesley in 
 the appendix, on. the Power of .Satan, and 
 al^ Edwards!/ ^TTave^eTn-^tnd^ 
 illi^eve^aA persons who have been exercised | | 
 with falling down, jumping up, clapping oj l\i 
 hands, 3.na screaming, titir in a manner to Kff^' < 
 
18 METHODIST ERROE. 
 
 disturb the whole congregation, ^who could 
 habitually, when at home, live careless and 
 sometimes trifling lives. They appeared to 
 make religion a business of passion and emo- 
 tion^ and studied most to acquire occasional 
 ~<^z frames and feelings.^ It should be a deep 
 
 Ucuic^ * I^ connexion with this, read Mr. Wesley's 
 
 r / I Thoughts on fondling words in Devotion, in the appen- 
 dix—" let us prevent, says he, loud shouting, horrid 
 unnatural screaming, jumping and throwing about 
 of the arms and legs, in a manner shocking not only 
 to religion, but to decency. Read also Br. A. 
 Clarke's charge to " avoid all quaint and fantastic at- 
 titudes, queer noddings, &c. &c. which prejudice and 
 grieve many." Scougal in his excellent work, the Life 
 of God in the Soul of man," says — " others put all re- 
 ligion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic 
 devotion ; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, 
 and to think of heaven with pleasure ; and to be af- 
 fected with those kind and melting expressions 
 wherewilh they court their Saviour, till they persuade 
 themselves that they are mightily in love with him." 
 This alone is not the life of God in the Soul of 
 
 fL 
 
 n^^d Jl^^..^<^4'^ Sc.^^ Wfct^ , ^ ^^r.^^.^-^^'-To^ 
 
 . / .h^r^ J - - - — • 
 
METHODIST ERROE. 
 
 1^ 
 
 and weighty subject to such, to consider 
 whether the good derived to themselves in 
 any case, could equal half the harm done 
 to others in membership, and to serious en- 
 
 soXhigh and fall so very low! Could such a map4 
 religi<m have been injured by St. Paul's restr^itts? 
 "WhocHn forget the extraviagance of another /preach- 
 er, who^scxcited it in others, even at 9/time he 
 was living\n sin, with one who was herself a .great 
 jumper, Weyare indeed ashamed to remember theses, 
 things, but if w^xonceal and forget suph appalling ad- 
 monitions, how s^all we profit b]^ experience ! — A'*=^ 
 jumper, who was a omcealed sinner, told me, after re- ^ 
 pentance, that she fobnd a lively sensibility of plea^- 
 sure in the exercise, but dr^dful deadness when 
 quiet. Here then was a sume^dence that Satan could i 
 give false joy ! Now she ji^Sit enjoy religion without J 
 it. Even while this nojre is phhning — a case occurs g 
 within my own knowL^ge, of rel^ious extravagance, ^ 
 wherein I have no/aoubt the actbr " thought herself ^ 
 doing God servic^ the Rev. J. R. on\pfistol Circuit, ^ 
 
 was leading hyr class, when coming t^a Mrs. , ^ 
 
 ^he rose up *o speak her state — after db^laring her 
 sense of a* gforious change wrought, she begaX^to fclose*0 
 it with sbmpmg, clapping her hands, and at la^ump- j 
 ing. I;i this state, as he had many others to speal^ to, <S 
 and 1^0 time to spare, he whispered in a subdued voie^, 
 ^'sister please to sit down." — At this word she fired,\ 
 
20 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 quirers after truth in general ! For the sake 
 of indulging some three or four extravagant 
 persons, a whole congregation, and all the 
 public who hear of it, are prejudiced and hin- 
 dered from joining us.* How selfish then 
 must be their spirit, who for a few occa- 
 sional public exhibitions, can be content to 
 
 shV shouted louder and louder, vociferatinff/*' No 
 man slmll stop me from praising God alojra! No 
 man shall make me be still. You, Sir, are an oppo- 
 ser to the\(ork of God, and I will shoift his praise." 
 The brethrenXhen began to sing, a^^ to drown her 
 voice and quieKJier^ — ^but she hmited so much the 
 more. The sequeKwas, the rafnister was obliged to 
 give a prayer and clW the meeting. At the same 
 ^ place, nine young membu^ proposed to withdraw be- 
 ^ cause they were hindei»^^\s they thought, from being 
 as noisy as they j»mhed. ^Now mark! this misled 
 woman, will be down, andNhey also who partook 
 . of her sensibUiues : but wherein ooes their noisy de- 
 £ sires differ pcom those who are actuaHy countenanced, 
 S except they mistimed their emotiW ! Do these 
 /ac^s offer no matter for amendment } ShoiHd they not 
 le^^ to some practical reformation ? 
 
 * R^d in (Hmnexion ^skh this,\John Fletcher's 
 Views ot^ligiouKExtravag^e, in thfesappendl^ ansiv 
 Edwards on^ the Afffei&tions. 
 
METHODIST ERROB. %± 
 
 11; 
 
 lay such stumbling blocks in the way of ;« j 
 others ! This is far indeed from the spirit of "^"^^^^ 
 St. Paul, who strove by all pieans to '^win (^'^S^^ 
 men to Christ," and to persuade with all ^ k ^ 
 
 long suffering and forbearance.^^ What ^« J 
 great grace, then, should these seZ/isfe chris- ^-^J 
 tians be attainers unto, for all this great^^ ^ 
 jprice! Let them consider, how many souls, ^^^.."J 
 have their jjj^eetings spoiled, for their single v*^f^ 
 . gratification ! We do not observe, however, ^-i. 
 that such are more generally sanctified than : 
 their more quiet fellows T^'fiut we often J^J^ ^ 
 have observed, that as their religion is 3 
 ' sought for, more in the^ee/zw^^ and sensi- J | 
 ble sigrSif pleasure, than in a settled, stable ^ 
 
 >^ ■ " . ' ' .^-^ .? ' :^ . // r 
 
22 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 own hearts will witness with me, in this 
 assertion ; and further, that they have never 
 experienced, that kind of charitable for- 
 £^ hearance comm|nded by St. Paul — to wit: 
 . . " not to offend by their acts, their weaker 
 brethren ; nay, not so much as to eat meat 
 (though so essential to life itself) if it offend, 
 while the world stands." The great ar- 
 ^•^<>^^^jP^\m^xii with those poopk is, that to restrain^ 
 IS to quench or grieve the Spirit. This is 
 error. We are given judgment on purpose 
 to exercise it.' Paul's address to the Corin- 
 thians, shows, that even in cases where the 
 Spirit of God gave prophecies and inspira- 
 tions, for the express purpose of declaring 
 them, they were still required to restrain 
 them " to edification,'' so as to speak in 
 turn, and one by one :^ and pursuing the 
 
 ' nr^^i^U^ , ^^/^ /.^^^ vvn^rx>^X h U^^^cA^ 
 
^_ Methodist error. 
 
 Same lesson^ he enjoins them to conduct 
 their religious worship always by the rules 
 and the restraints of decency and orderJ^ 
 Now I would affectionately ask our turbulent 
 
 Cdhveri|i6nce, is manifest from several facts. Our Ooif*^ 
 ferenceifor instance, feels no scruple to decline the 
 
 use of ar^ man's ministry who comes to theijjf^^on the 
 
 motion o 
 in his fa' 
 check those 
 finallyj;he i 
 reral who th 
 
 the 
 
 ^4 
 
 Holy Ghost, if expediency ijf not also 
 ir. In love feasts it is very common, to 
 ^ho seem moved to speak ,too long, and i^ 
 ;ing is ended while thete are yet se- ^ 
 they have motions speak. But a ^ 
 yet stronger ca\e is within the ^y/iter's knowledge. %^ 
 At the BAthelfcchurch in Philadelphia, it has 
 
 been common, to Vheck the immoderate noise of the 
 people, when the poacher has been hindered in his dis- ♦ 
 course. The Rev. S— , wnen stationed in Philadel-^ 
 phia, after preaching\hrough much acclamation, came^ 
 down to the altar, saVing he had some thing special * 
 to communicate. He^ thus hushed them : — after pro- ^ 
 ceeding a liUie, a rjsing Inurmur, began to drown his 
 voice — and he woyfd appease them again and again in 
 this way — " St^p, stop, irir honies, not now ! bye 
 and bye !" theti they would Bridle in, and so he and' 
 ^ey alternately drew in and l^out, till he showed the 
 sign of ewiing, by waving his Handkerchief with the 
 word now ! Then the whole chunch was in an instant 
 uproar/ jumping and shouting, tih " they made the 
 welkyn ring." A minister who preached there, and 
 believed that such religion was greyly mechanical, 
 said, he coujd raise or lower their sprritual efflata at 
 
 1^ ^/ 
 
2* 
 
 METHODIST EHROR. 
 
 am persTfaded, 
 ions, adduce such 
 >e ready to think, 
 ^ Tliey will think 
 iuresTj But I only 
 
 friends, wherein they are sensible of govern^ 
 ing themselves by either of these injunc- 
 tions ? Whether in fact, they do not hold it 
 meritorious contrariwise, to give to their 
 
 his pleasure, and that he had actually Aade the et- 
 perimettt : — to paint the joys of religioa was sure to 
 raise them,, and to speak of the practic)al holiness of 
 their dutiesXwas as sure to silence thein. Yet even 
 this minister)though well-meaning, da^ed not to teach 
 such people the^ errors of their fancVes. Theyjiave 
 now parted fron^ us, and we are iy)t sorry, ^^ome 
 well meaning Melfeliodists, will be, 
 ^a;, ^ shocked to see me ipn several occas 
 _fy^j A facts of illustration ;^nd they v^U^ 
 £clLU^'- j J acting the part of an enemy. 
 
 t_ I betray my cause by these expoi 
 
 relate facts which have be^n disi^ayed oefore thou- 
 sands. The whole population of BTiiladelphiaywhopass 
 and repass such exercises, (Vnd' more than has been 
 here told) may have witnessed, and been prejudiced 
 against us by these things. B/uii some will say, 1 hese 
 things do not prevail in ourxhrnch! This is no pal- 
 iation ; if our ministers arw wheVe suffer religion to 
 run wild under their adrmiistratiwi, we are all, as 
 one body, disparaged thereby; andVor many of us, 
 who are known to be h/stile to excesses, to hope to 
 escape just reproach bjwiausewe may suun th'e know- 
 ledge of public opinion and report, is idle as the 
 stupid ostrich, who wj(en pursued, thinks\ himself safe 
 if he can only loose /ght of his pursuers bjr concealing 
 his own head. Tlfhs is like shutting ouft eyes and^^^ 
 ^.^h and^ncyin^others as unobserving a^ourselvesT^T* 
 
'4^ 
 
 *~1 ' 
 
I 
 
 4x. 
 
 \ 
 
METHODIST ERROE. 
 
 25 
 
 passions the entire reins ; nay, even to de- 
 siring to forget themselves, and to fancy 
 they are lost and swallowed up, in a partial 
 senselessness of time and place. 1 have 
 myself actually witnessed an entire uncon- 
 sciousness of i kmm&si indelicate female at- 
 titudes, even in the house of God ! One of our 
 lapsed ministers, (Mr. F-^) says he fell into 
 sin, by the influence of such a spectacle. 
 Are these pooplo, themselves being judges, ^<2.w^rW 
 (for I hope they will submit to self-exa- 
 mination as we go along,) ever afraid of 
 the errors of enthusiasm ? I guess not — - 
 perhaps they scarce ever pray against it. 
 Yet we ought always to fear and expect 
 it.^ The history of the corruptions of the 
 church in all ages has shown us, that in 
 every age, the churches which once did 
 run well, have been overthrown or hum- 
 bled by it. Now, can such heedless chris- 
 tians be truly on their watch tower ? I have 
 I'emarked of such, that, their meetings have 
 not been most affecting when the preacher 
 
 * See Locke on Enthusiasm and Error, in the ap- 
 pendix; and consider Whitefield's frank confession ;yv<r*^ -^* — 
 1 «i^John Wesle^ on the power of Satan. ^, „ SrC^ , 
 
26 
 
 METHOUIST ERROR. 
 
 has dwelt upon the strict holiness of our 
 duties — sudi have made silent hearers ; but 
 when a/ 'gool e t has chosen topics for arous- 
 ing the feelings, or has shown his own, 
 they have caught his spirit and echoed his 
 strains.^ Religious feelings to be true should 
 be universal — making due allowance for 
 the natural temperaments of different per- 
 sons. Thus if a man or woman must needs 
 jump, it must pre-suppose them always qua- 
 lified—but I have seen such a woman still- 
 ed with the sense of her approaching mater- 
 nity, or by the presence of an infant on the 
 arms. Is her religion then quiescent ! A 
 man too occasionally, becomes lame, or uses 
 his crutch, will his ceasins diminish his 
 fervour ! Some too we trust have their reli- 
 gious fervour on their beds. Do any of 
 these people jump or scream, at home, in 
 the street, at the affecting occasions of 
 a7^ taking the elements of sacrament,^n other 
 churches Are not these emotions too, quite 
 
 * We see no such affections in other churches : 
 and although we think we maj assume, that we have 
 ' -^in general more of the spirit with us ; yet that every 
 nther ehurch has individuals among them as holj&ks 
 
 . a. ^, , - . ■ ^ » ■• . 
 
1 
 
 s 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. %7 ^ 
 
 unlike their usual manner of expressing any -lij 
 
 other joy or gladness? why the difference! >i 
 
 In closet devotion, we should expect most ^1 
 
 of these exercises, because there we enter ^ ^ 
 
 more peculiarly into the very presence of o*^ 
 
 Deity ; there too, we might be as vehement i ^ 
 
 as we could, without offence to others. Ijtt~^^y "^^^^ ^ 
 
 -te jiiMnndi 'i jpul thje jamj.^m . yiii' ^nswer why 
 
 on such occasions and with such opportuni- / / 
 
 ties to indulge, they can be rather silent and 
 
 secret than otherwise ! Why is it that for 
 
 one mail, who jumps or screams, there are J 
 
 many women ; is this as if grace wes equal ? 
 
 How is it that many instances of women 
 
 vvho while single are conspicuous in these 
 
 things, desist altogether after marriage ? 
 
 Why is it, that scarce any of our preachers 
 
 exercise in this way, if grace constrains ? 
 
 Nay, when or where did any of the apostles 
 
 or fathers ever scream or jump or shout? 
 
 Finally, how can we as avowed free agents, 
 
 who are given to choose for ourselves in all 
 
 any of oilrs, we must grant, or be most arrant bigots. 
 But none of these know anj thing of relig:ion in this 
 way^ytlo^ is jt then ? The time was too, even among 
 ourselves, when it was not seen or known. It began 
 in Virginia, and as I have heard, among the blf^ks. * 
 
28 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 . , ^ things, pretend that we have not the coiv 
 je^-m^^^ troul of our emotions ! Our doctrine^is^ 
 " Heaven persuades ; Almighty man de- 
 
 We have too, a growing evil, in the prac- 
 tice of singing in our places of puhlic and 
 society worship, merry airs, adapted from 
 old songs, to hymmof our comnosing»i#i0ften 
 miserable as poetry, and senseless as mat- 
 ter,! and most frequently composed and first 
 
 V ° " ' -r^ ' 
 
 • * See Charles Wesley in the appendisjhow rea- 
 
 /dily they governed their emotions, when he declared, ' 
 " I do not think the better any one for crying 
 out. Yet he adds, I never had more success than 
 here." 
 
 r 
 
 |i t " Touch but one string, 'twill make heaven ring," 
 
 is of this character. What string is that which can 
 effect this ! Who can give any sense to it ? Take 
 another case : " Go shouting all your days," in con- 
 nexion with " glory, glory, glory," in which go' 
 shouting is repeated six times in succession. Is 
 there one particle of sense in its connexion with the 
 general matter of the hymn ? and are they not mere 
 ^ / 7V,>idle expletives, filled in to eke out the tunefr* 'J&©¥^ 
 / / ^^ ' >'^ 0 'J " P^"' <^^ ^ ^ctly ■ parallel to ^^ - go ' Scretmnngyj - wmpyn^ ^ 
 a^t^^J^^^ '^t^p.an y othor part i' oiplo)a t//" y < »M i ' da^n I" ' 0 sjjkimkwv , 
 r/^' ^j^JfVfi^W' " Do those who are delighted with sucli 
 
y^;.?! , c/;4^ . 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 29 
 
 Sling by the illiterate blacks of the society. 
 Thus instead of inculcating sober Christi- 
 anity in them who have least wisdom to go- 
 vern themselves ; lifting them into spiritual 
 pride and to an undue estimation of their 
 usefulness : overlooking too the counsel of 
 Mr. Wesley, who has solemnly expressed 
 his opinion^^^iis book of hymns, ^ al- 
 ready amply sufficient for all our purposes 
 of rational devotion : not at all regarding 
 his condemnation of this very practice, for 
 which among other things, he actually ex- 
 pelledjhree ministers (Maxwell, Bell and 
 Owen : see the appendix) for singing " jpoor^ 
 hold, flat, disjointed hymns: and like the 
 people in Wales, singing the same verse 
 over and over again with all their might 30 
 or 40 times, " to the utter discredit of all 
 sober Christianity neglecting too, the coun- 
 sel of Dr. Clarke in this matter, " never to 
 sing hymns of your own composing in pub- 
 lic, (these are also the very words of in- 
 junction of our own Discipline, page S%,) un- 
 
 things, consider what delights them ? Some times tooj 
 they are from such impure sources, as I am ac- 
 tually ashamed to name in this place. ^iK^ l^Ul^ 
 
 ^^^^ ^ ^ ^ i^i^'w-c'K^'"^^^*^^ 
 
so 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 less you be a first rate poet, such as can 
 only occur in every ten or twenty millions 
 of men; for it argues incurable vanity.^' 
 Buch singing as has been described, has 
 we know, been ordinarily sung in most of 
 our prayer and camp meetings : sometimes 
 two or three at a time in succession. In the 
 *- mean time, one and another of mujijcal feelings, 
 and consonant animal spirits, has been heard 
 stepping the merry strains with all the pre- 
 cission of an avowed dancer. Here ought 
 to be considered too, a most exceptionable 
 error, which has the tolerance at leas^f the 
 rulers of our camp meetings. In the blacks^ 
 quarter, the coloured people get together, and 
 sing for hours together, short scraps of dis- 
 jointed affirmations, pledges, or prayers, 
 lengthened out with long repetition choruses. 
 These are all sung in the merry chorus- 
 manner of the southern harvest field, or husk- 
 ing.frolic method, of the slave blacks ; and 
 also very greatly like the Indian dances. 
 With every word so sung, they have a sink- 
 ing of one or other leg of the body alter- 
 nately ; producing an audible sound of the 
 feet at every step, and as manifest as the 
 steps of actual negro dancing in Virginia^ &e. 
 
METHODIST ERROR. SI 
 
 If some, in the meantime sit, they strike the 
 sounds alternately on each thigh. What 
 in the name of religion, can countenance or 
 tolerate such gross perversions of true reli- 
 gion ! but the evil is only occasionally con- 
 ^ deraned, and the example has already visibly 
 affected the religious manners of some whites. 
 From this cause, I have knov^^n in some 
 camp meetings, from 50 to 60 people croud 
 into one tent, after the public devotions had 
 closed, and there continue the whole night, 
 singing tune after tune, (though with occa- 
 sial episodes of prayer) scarce one of which 
 were in our hymn books.* Some of these 
 from their nature, (having very long repe- 
 tition choruses and short scraps of matter) are 
 actually composed as sung, and are indeed 
 almost endless. But our Discipline has some 
 rule on this mattery V^^^ speaking of 
 cautions in singing, says, they must be 
 chosen suitable, not too much at once, and 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that not one of our ap- 
 pointed hymns under the article " rejoicing and 
 praise," nor among the " new hymns," have any 
 hymns of this character, therefore they who want 
 them most, have to forsake that standard. 
 
S2 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 seldom more than five or six verses.'^ The 
 English conference has resolved " that no 
 singing be allowed in any of our churches 
 after the public service, as we think, say 
 they, singing at such times tends to extin- 
 guish the spirit of devotion, and to destroy 
 those serious impressions, which may have 
 been made by the previous ministry. Let 
 our preachers take care to examine the 
 hymns which are to be sung on special 
 occasions ; and let them reject all those 
 which are not decidedly unobjectionable in 
 in point of sentiment and poetry, and we 
 earnestly recommend that our own autho- 
 rized hymns be generally preferred for all 
 such purposes." Are those who sing so long, 
 and so incessantly, (frequently they are very 
 young and inexperienced persons) quite sure 
 they continue to sing with the spirit and the 
 understanding ; and are they able to discri- 
 minate how little of it is of mere animal 
 spirits?* Are they sure the^ have not after- 
 
 * We will not be willingly censorious, but we 
 cannot forbear to hint at an important fact in the 
 history of sound ; musical tones are capable of infu- 
 sing themselves into our nerves with the most plea- 
 
METHODIST ERROB. 33 
 
 wards felt no undue weariness of the flesh, 
 and incompetency to engage with life and 
 animation, in the suhsequent public devo- 
 tions? These are sober questions which 
 their consciences should answer in the fear 
 of God, for all things are to be done to his 
 glory, and most especially in worship. ^ 
 
 If it be just and right for one, two or 
 three, to jump and scream, to clap their 
 hands, and thump and pat the floor, either 
 by stamping or by stepping the music, or to 
 see-saw their bodies to and fro, then it is 
 
 surable emotion :^ScotcIi soldiers can be excited to 
 deeds of the most extravagant daring, by the mere 
 tones of their bagpipe ; our Indians are so sensible to 
 the spell of their rude music, that they alFect their 
 bodie^s to its sounds, much like our blacks, until thej 
 actually fall senseless to the ground ; most men have 
 felt the influence of the violin, or of martial music on 
 the feet ; and we all have seen many of the irrational 
 creation strangely affected by the sounds of instru- 
 ments. These facts are worth the thoughtful considera- 
 tion, of the young and unreflecting convert : let such 
 test their devotion, by trying for a time, if they 
 have equal pleasure in solemn, silent prayer and me« 
 ditation. It they have not this test, I should greatly 
 fear that their fervour is in part adventitious and 
 animal, s*. . . 
 
 )L ^^^^ --r ^ ^^^w^--^ 
 
 ^trfc-wXi 2v>*%y ii:^ ^ 
 
St^ METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 right for all ; and if all should once do it, 
 we cease at once to be a church of peace, 
 and order as becometh the saints/' and 
 become the house of ^'confusion," which 
 God has said he will not own ! Indeed, what 
 edification, or decency, or order could be 
 expected in such an assembly ? We may 
 thank God, hitherto, such general emotion 
 has not been permitted ; or we should ere 
 now have ceased to have had churches. Re- 
 member the French proph&te and beware I 
 ^ Alas ! alas ! is it nothing to thooo pooplc — 
 who, to satisfy a transient feeling, hinder so 
 many from joining our church — to consider 
 how many may be barred out by their 
 ^means? [Our doctrines are so catholic in 
 themselves, that 1 sometimes suppose there 
 is scarce a sincere t&inker about religion, 
 who would not prefer us, butfor these hinder- 
 ances. j Why then does such seeming evil 
 "prevail? Let us indulge conjecture. Is it 
 not scriptural to suppose, that Satan attacks 
 and secures some hold, more or less in every 
 church ? Such is our imperfection ! Where 
 has he his power most in ours ? If we grant 
 he has it some where, and some will be for 
 fixing it here, and another there, may I not, 
 
METHODIST ERttOK. 
 
 without uncliaritableness, conclude he has 
 actually taken his strong hold with us , in ^-^^ , 
 this very thing? We admit he has more j 4.(75 
 reason to assail and foil us than those whoNj^ 
 are at ease in Zion.* Behold the eril which T; 
 it eff'ects ! What could prevent our general jl 
 acceptance among all real worshippers, but S 
 this thing ! But say some, h_owJ gJt if this^J 
 b e wrong, that we have so much real re- ^ 
 l ig;ion among us ? ^I ^nimlilijiiimiL h ii, all thc^ 
 sincere, though in error, must be accepted^ i , ; 
 I actually knew a lady convicted, and after- ^< 
 wards converted, by beholding Christ on 
 the cross in a Roman Chapel, because her 
 heart then sincerely deplored the sins which 
 made her Saviour bleed. The celebrated 
 
 7 6' 
 
 V 77' ^^^^^^ • 0 »^ f 1 
 
 ✓w-^ cJ(Lo.au>\r- ixnA<JtJ-^ ^l>oue^v^-J 
 
 _, - _ ^ — ij — 
 
, 36 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 Rev. John Newton, has said, ^^1 Icnew a 
 man who was excluded from ^^**^'s g©^ 
 ciety, for known and repeated acts of wick- 
 edness, and yet after his expulsion he con- 
 > • tinued preaching, and I believe he was 
 I owned to the awakening not of one or two, 
 
 I ■ but of many sinners ; perhaps of many 
 J ' scores.''^ Nothing can be better attested, 
 M than the fact, that evil or misled men, may 
 
 \\f .hy-utterin§4ruth*; or that the well 
 
 meaning and confiding, contrite soul, may 
 derive benefit from the preaching of any 
 'II man, in whose doctrine they have implicit 
 ^ J belief. Among ourselves, we have seen 
 I ^ * several lapsed ministers and members, ac- 
 ^^^j^ tually made a blessing to their hearers. I 
 * myself have sp.p.iV ^^, ■ n .yii^ - F *! ^ ., ^ 
 while living injeudness, dealcput their sen- 
 timents with the most fervent and welcome re- 
 * ceptibn. Qiz^j^^^^} while in the practice 
 of intemperance, made his word like a ham- 
 mer where ever he went. Who does not re- 
 member the4wre«4*««>» conduct of P---^d|piiP^ 
 in New -York, and W4fer-=tiin Philadelphia, 
 among the Baptists,^and H-^ among the 
 1 ' : i(|il^lPrirhjtrrrnii"^ even while their congrega- ^ 
 tions acknowledged their usefulness in 
 
 ^^^^ ^/-.^ "V"' 
 
METHODIST ERUOK. 37 
 
 their ministry. Why are such pollu|ions of- ^t" 
 the sanctuary occasionally permitted, but to 
 admonish, and to convince us too, that ap- 
 pearances and feelings, however specious, 
 are not the only test of judgment ; the golden 
 rule, after all, being this : " he that keepeth 
 my commandments, (and not he that saith 
 Lord, Lord, most) is he that loveth me 1" 
 We know^ very well, that Lorenzo Dow 
 does good where he goes, for he is sincere , 
 and finds some kindred minds ; but we all 
 know he is full of fancy, and the prey of 
 imagination, dreams and impressions, and 
 altogether an unique and unmanageable 
 wanderer | he may hit upon right, but he is * 
 also liable to wrong, because deadness,'^ 
 "and life'^ are the two magic tests, by which 
 he discerns his spirits ! He reminds us of 
 Cromwell's "particular idciihy^' cu-i^d^ly ^-^^^jp^ \ 
 
 * It is a fact and a misfortune too, that misled 
 men have most zeal, and so recommend their ex- 
 ertions and vehemence to the notice of the simple 
 hearted, as really better than others. Nay, they are 
 apt to think so of themselves, and therefore act v^-ith 
 all the assurance of absolute certainty in all they do. 
 Thus they often confirm their beholders in their owr* 
 errors. The mistake in all this, is this: suchjuen, 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 But with all these evils, the remaining 
 good, in my opinion, much surpasses that of 
 any other people, a nd therefore I apa still 
 a Methodist. Even the Scribes and Pha- 
 risees, bad as they were, when sitting in 
 Moses' seat, were allowed to be a blessing in 
 their teaching, even in the just judgment of 
 Christ himself. As Methodists, we believe 
 in, and seek after more of the spirituality and 
 
 who feel so much of some kind of spirit, take it for 
 granted, that God will not suffer them to run into 
 error, especially in helping his own work. Thus 
 hoping he will send his angel, or work some miracle 
 to set them right when wrong. This pow, is the 
 source of much of the evil ; and is in fruth, down- 
 right presumption. However specious it may seem, 
 it is actually requiring Deity at our puny hands, to un- 
 do his own pe^ect work ! " The law and testimony" 
 he has given,^" as sufficient for all our reproof and 
 correction in righteousness and the misled, too 
 zealous to abide by its sober rules and restraints, vir- 
 tually say, good God " indulge our feeble frames," in 
 this and this ! We think weiind such and such, new 
 ways, do really help thy cause, &c. Is not his answer 
 universal to such ? " If any man teach any other doc- 
 trine let him be accursed," i. e. cast out as evil ; as 
 injurious. Oh ! Lord our God, make us sober chris- 
 tians, " always inclined to thy statutes and ordi- 
 

 
 // — 
 . 
 
 /// 
 
 SIS'/ ~ 
 
 ■ ^ 
 
 /2. 
 
 ft./ 3. 
 
 /o 31. : 
 
 ^^^^^ — T^^y^^,, Zprj, 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 power of religion in the soul, than most other 
 people. We expect and insist upon frequent 
 spiritual births : and our precepts as left by 
 Mr. Wesley, surpass any other present 
 church for holiness of living. But for our 
 excesses, which an enemy hath done," 
 1 verily believe, that at this time, all other 
 peo^'e, not now otherwise engaged, who 
 like holy living, would be of us. Oh, how 
 immense then is our loss ! who can number 
 it ; and oh ! what have we gained in ex- 
 change ! Tell it not inGath! w 
 
 Will these things be permitted to con- 
 tinue ? I trust God will yet give us wisdom 
 to avoid them : and moreover, that he will 
 give all our rulers to know, and do aright. 
 I do suspect the root of the evil is in some 
 of them. As men, they are also partakers of 
 the fallen nature ; and in their degree " men 
 of like passions with ourselves." They 
 sometimes have their glory to share, and 
 their popularity to sustain. Some of them 
 no doubt feel, that they are susceptible of 
 that pleasure, which comes from connecting 
 their name with a good report of " revival," 
 at^nference!* " Man pays homage to man." 
 For instance, where is the man, now, who 
 
*0 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 with the spirit of Fletcher, [see the appeo- 
 dix,] is willing " to stand in the gap, and by 
 sacrificing himself, shut this immense abyss 
 of enthusiasm.'^ If all our ministers were 
 considerate and faithful enough, publicly 
 f-JUc, and privately to instruct and declare, as 
 
 A^^f^^^^Charles Weslevdid, [see the appendix J that 
 '^t^^nJt:^^ . was no religion in the abstract, in 
 jumping^ screaming, loud shouting, and other 
 noisy acclamations and actions ; and that in- 
 deed it injured some and prejudiced many ; 
 and if tolerated at all, it must be as an un- 
 amiable and extorted appendage of religious 
 feelings, we should, I think, accomplish a 
 great desideratum indeed ; and so, soon see 
 our churches governed with the peace that 
 becometh the saints," with no less of vital 
 piety ; and certainly with much more gene- 
 ral acceptance to all those whom our general 
 faithful manner of preaching aivakens, but 
 which hitherto have fled to other churches.* 
 
 * We learn from Lorenzo Dow's Journal, that 
 " the English connexion in general, are determined 
 to prevent noise, as appears both from their conduct 
 and from their publications in the Magazine." He 
 further adds, « I saw Adam Clarke at the conference, 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 41 ' . 
 
 Indeed I have known some, who being 
 urged to excuse this evil, •to screen their * 
 names, as abettors of false doctrines,«have 
 sought out many inventions,^^ and have 
 wrested the Scriptures,^' from their obvious 
 context^ rather than grapple with the wild 
 prejudices of a few of the people. Ah ! ye 
 ministers, disregard your popularity^ in this jl 
 ^ thing»be faithful, be vigilant, "sober, blame- , 
 Zess, iiaving a good report of those who are ; ■ 
 without " let no man despise thee.'^ Mark , 
 what the ^ wise and good Dr. Clarke has 
 given us for your instruction, in his book of 
 " Advice to Preachers,'^ a book which I am 
 sojicywk) not in youg^ ' handG : " make a con^ 
 science to give the literal meaning to the 
 
 in July 1806 — he told me, (when speaking of the 
 nature of revivals at American camp meetings, about 
 which he appeared well informed, but not friendly 
 to) that he was at first in the spirit of the great re- ' 
 vival in Cornwall, and felt opposed to some of those 
 ^vho then spoke of impropriety and wild fir e^ hut 
 now he saw better. His mind seemed fixed to 
 the old system order. When I heard him pray in 
 public, he grew somewhat fervent, and there began a 
 move among the people, he then seemed to lower as 
 if to ward off the movCj^to prevent a n oise.'^ 
 
METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 J 1 ' people. This is a matter of great and so- 
 ^1 ^ ^ ^1 leraii importance. To give God's word a 
 3| construction he has not intended, is awful 
 > \ J indeed ! By not attending to this, heresies, 
 false doctrines and errors of all kinds, have 
 
 been propagated and multiplied."^ And 
 speaking of allegorical preaching first intro- 
 duced by Origen, he says, this deceitful 
 handling of the word of Grod, is degi^ading 
 to the dignified doctrines of the gospel ; by 
 it no rational conviction was ever produced, 
 and no truth was ever proved.'^ 
 
 How often, after this manner, have we 
 seen passages forced from their sense and 
 context, to prop up a favourite notion or illu- 
 sion ! Thus to countenance jumping^ the 
 case of David, and the lame man in the 
 
✓ 'vcX^ OCX 
 
 r-g-^^.^.^jZ/' C^^f:>^L Ci--^^^«J^J 
 
 7-- 
 
 V - 
 
 1 
 
METHODIST ERROS. <tg 
 
 were restored, that he might be able to use 
 them, arid he actually uses them forthwith 
 according to their natural use, this urges no 
 argument for our worship, unless it was 
 also shown, that when in the temple at his 
 devotions, he actually jumped only, until, as 
 in our cases, he fell down exhausted. But 
 the obvious truth is, that in both cases, they 
 acted thus because they were on the high 
 way, and were of necessity in actual pro- 
 gressive motion — mi their gladness made 
 them use their feet and limbs more vehemently. 
 Their action was for then^elves, and their 
 praise was for God ! To show still further 
 the perversion of the scriptures to some men's 
 uses, it may here be remarked, that we 
 have again and again heard it said, even 
 from the pulpit, that Michal, David's wife, 
 was smitten with barrenness, because she 
 was offended at David's exposure of hi& 
 person in his excess of exercise ; thus in- 
 timating, that her exceptions were punished 
 ef God ; and holding up the terror of this , 
 example ^errorum to the uninformed of our f TV. 
 ^ay, so as to cause their quiet ac^j^iiescence 
 in present excesses. Now where is the evi* 
 dence of all this ? But i« it not plain; that hei? 
 
i.i METHODIST ERROR. ' 
 
 offence was not against God, but against 
 the dignity and honour of the king, «^ chosen 
 before her father and her house and does 
 not David himself say, he will " therefore'' 
 be honoured,^!, e. received J by her maids, 
 and she herself should no longer hold her 
 relation as wife ? Of them shall I be had 
 in honour, therefore, Michal the daughter of 
 Saul, had no child until the day of her 
 death," a Samuel vi. S8. It is not even in- 
 sinuated, that Michal w-as offended at the 
 religious procession, (30,000 of whom 
 shouted with trumpets and timbrels) but at 
 the king of Israel, for his personal indeco- 
 rum. Nor is such severity, against offen- 
 ders of the honour and dSgnity of the king, 
 uncommon in the bible ; king Ahasuerus, by 
 the decree of his lords and nobles dethroned 
 Queen Vashti, solely, because she excused' 
 herself but once from the presence of the 
 king. And David slew the men, who from 
 motives of affection^ brought him the head 
 of his enemy king Saul ; giving as his reason^ 
 09'^ that they had not regarded " the Lord's 
 t anointed ;^ most probably, the homage which 
 was due to the king, and the reasons of it, 
 are mi now sufficiently known to us. But 
 
METHODIST ERBOS. 4tB 
 
 we herein perceive, if we will, wherein 
 Michal gave her oifence. 
 
 In connexion with all the preceding gene- 
 i:al views, the reader is now requested to 
 turn his mind to the perusal of the several 
 concurrent articles in the appendix, from 
 the pens of John and Charles Wesley, John j^^^,^ 
 Fletcher, Edwards, Clarke,^&c. And let ui t^ ^% 
 us read their wise admonitions as gracious 
 legacies to us their heirs and successors, not 
 being " heady or self-willed,'^ but " teach- 
 able and gentle," receiving reproof in 
 meekness.'^ Considerine, that if God, who 
 ^ent us great men to be our leaders, ha^ not 
 acquainted them \^h any of these exercises., 
 in themselves, (bi^|pitas in various instances) 
 •led Mr. Wesley, in particular^ to ascribe 
 them to eviL agencies,) we may surely be 
 safe in diserediting them. Knowing this too, 
 that such Apostles in the great revival of the 
 eighteenth century, were given to us in much 
 mercy, both as example and precept ! 
 
*6 METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 CHAPTER Hi. 
 
 Scriptures of the old Testament considered in de*, 
 tail, being those which have been adduced by some, 
 as countenancing religious bodily exercises, and 
 other strong manifestations of the passions. 
 
 IT is the practice of the Scriptures to 
 speak in the characteristic language of the 
 people to whom they were first delivered ; 
 and as they were first delivered to the people 
 ^ of the East, who^<^jtliis day abound in ex- 
 "T^^^^i^^ travagant metaphor^n our sense of judg- 
 in^^hey^are therefore extremely figurative; 
 ^sometimes^ ^o obscurityjkand abound with 
 constant reference to ramiliar objects of 
 sense, for its comparisons and illustrations?^ 
 I think the Jews, from this caus^were ac- 
 customed to hyperboles of speech. I expect 
 too, they were naturally vehement, passionate 
 and giddyf some-^hat like we see the 
 French^ if compared with ourselves in the 
 present day : I expect therefore, that in their 
 public assemblages and processions, (like 
 the Greeks too,) they were so lively in their 
 sensations, as to shout, and leap^ and dance^ 
 
<^^-h^ af^Jc^U^^ ^:4LJ ff ^^ a^^J^ll^A^ 
 
METHODIST EllROB. 
 
 47 
 
 and clap their hands, if joyful ; or if sor- 
 rowful, to rend their garments (a very silly 
 thing!) to put on sack cloth, to cast dust 
 upon their heads, and to howl ! All these 
 things have been manifested on occasions far 
 from religious. This was in the natural 
 temperament of the people : John Char- J^W^ 
 din, in speaking of the geni^us of the people 
 of Asia, says their sentiments of joy or 
 grief, are properly transports ; and their trans- 
 ports are ungoverned, excessive and truly 
 outrageous. When any one returns from 
 a long journey, or dies, his family burst into 
 cries that may be heard twenty doors off — 
 and this is renewed at different times, and 
 continues many days, according to the vi- 
 gour of the passion. Sometimes they cease 
 all at once, and then begin as suddenly, with 
 a greater shrillness and loudness, than one 
 could well imagine." The language of in- 
 spiration^ in the old Testament part of the 
 bible, is addressed to the characteristic man- 
 ners and habits of such a people. They 
 were a gross people in many things ; their 
 religion too was addressed to the external 
 §anses, and with all they were an illiterate 
 
48 METHODIST ERRORr 
 
 people.^ These premises will account for 
 much of the scripture phrases— such as ; O 
 clap your hands all ye people — cl ap your 
 hands ye hills — her saints shall shout aloud 
 for joy — cry out and shout , for great is the 
 Holy one — rejoice ye righteous, and shou t for 
 joy — let the s^nts be joj^ful, &c. — sing aloud 
 tapon your beSs — let the high praises of God 
 be in thy mouth, and a two-edged- sword in 
 thy hand — praise the Lord in the dance — let 
 the floods clap their hands — let the hills be 
 joyful together ; let the isles be glad — let all 
 the trees of the wood rejoice — skip ye little 
 hills/' Such expressions, we perceive, are 
 very high wrought metaphors, and are ac- 
 counted for, by their being all composed as 
 poetry , and were sung by the people with 
 musical accompaniments. Poetic license,^' 
 has now become proverbial^ and all admit, 
 that much imagery is essential to good 
 poetry. The Eastern people, we know, to 
 this day^ use the most extravagant tropes 
 and other figures of speech. The psalms, 
 (which literally mean hymns to be sung,) 
 
 * Look into Dr. Clarke's Manners and Customs of 
 the Ancient Israelites. 
 
MfcTHODIST ERKOK. 
 
 49 
 
 contain generally^ prayers, praises, exhorta- 
 tions and prophecies; and for this latter 
 caiilse, many passages were then sung with 
 musical instruments in worship, of which 
 we now know the import and they did not ; 
 and indeed all the sensible religion, which 
 they express, was perhaps more indicative 
 of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, which 
 should be revealed in conversions in the 
 gospel, than any thing which the singers 
 of that day; understood. Thus David says, 
 1 will open my dark sayings on the harp.'^ 
 Sometimes the tenor of the song was to ex- 
 cite the musicians themselves to their best 
 musical exertions. Thus the 81st psalm, by 
 Asaph, is addressed to the chief musician, and 
 seems ostensibly to tell him by way of pre- 
 lude, how his band should execute the ser- 
 vice of the day ; and the tenor of the whole, 
 shows, that it was composed for the purpose 
 of celebrating the feast of blowing the 
 trumpets,'' which was on the first day of the 
 seventh*month.* Thus the song runs : ^^Take 
 a psalm or hymn, and bring hither the tim- 
 brel, the pleasant harp, with the psaltry i sing 
 
 * See Lev, xxiii. and JSTiimh. xxix. 
 
50 METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 aloud unto God our strength : make a joyful 
 noise unto the God of Jacob, &c." Almost all 
 the psalms, show by their head lines, that 
 when composed, they were sent to a special 
 band to be by them played on instruments, 
 and sung in the worship. In this way we have 
 many occasional psalms to celebrate public 
 acts : the 68th is to commemorate the return 
 of the ark. The three or four last psalms, 
 are composed entirely for purposes of thanks- 
 giving and praise: thus the llsth, is in- 
 tended to celebrate the felicity^ of David^s 
 then kingdom ; and he calls upon dragons, 
 and all deeps, and fire, and hail, and snow, to 
 praise his God. The poetic sense of these, 
 and other like hymns, are poetically, and 
 beautifully run into English verse, by Dr, 
 Watts. They indeed excite to thanksgiv- 
 ing and praise, but they no more intend by 
 them, that which should attend their literal 
 observance, shouting, clapping our hands^ 
 or sMpping, than that we should take ^< a 
 two-edged sword into our handf^Ul gird a 
 sword upon the thigh,^ick the dust,^make 
 a noise like a dogJ^jp^^'S® with hyssopT^e- 
 come like a wheel,'^orthat we should keep 
 silence;'' because he hath said, ^^the Lord 
 
A 
 
 ^<^JjLf -tto^c-W ^)^^:^ Or,^^^ <trx.e-iX^ f*^-^ ^ x^ ^'Cpu, ' 
 
 , rid-, ^f, 4/1 r i/j^ , $-4 , JT-"^ 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 51 
 
 is in liis holy temple, let all the earth keep 
 silence or, " be still and know that I am 
 God for it is also said^ Our God shall 
 come, and not keep silence.'' 
 
 Eiit notwithstanding these necessary checks 
 which I have just made to misinterpretations, 
 let no one imagine lam averse from the lively 
 and sensible affections of true religion; I 
 am a decided advocate for a religion, that is 
 perceived and known by its feelings; and I 
 doubt not, no part of the Scriptures, making 
 due abatement for the metaphors, so clearly 
 show the characteristic joy and gladness of 
 Christianity, the spirit of praise, fervour of 
 prayer, and vehemence of devotion, than the 
 psalms actually present. I wish to under- 
 stand them too, as being a part of those 
 
 parables and dark sayings,''*^ which pro- 
 phets and kings desired to see, and could 
 not ; and which were fulfilled in the apostle's 
 time, and described, as I am willing to sup- 
 pose, by St. Peter,t saying, ye receive the 
 salvation of your souls, by believing, (in 
 him, who has just ascended) with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory " which sal- 
 
 * See Psalm, chap. Ixxviii. f 1 Petef, i. chap. 
 
 e:/icuriu Ji,mirL^ i ^ (^^"-^ su.>JL 
 
52 METHODIST EERQll. 
 
 vation the prophets have enquired iatq and 
 searched diligently ; who prophesied of the 
 grace that should come unto you, and unto 
 whom it was revealed, Ihat not unto them- 
 selves, but unto us, they did minister the 
 things which are now reported unto you 
 with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
 which things, too, the angels desire to look 
 into." AH these things I do verily believe 
 are as much affirmed of psalms as of any 
 part of the Bible : but the apostle also adds, 
 a caution in adopting all their literal import, 
 for he says, " wherefore, gird up (i. e. tie 
 up, restrain) the loins of your mind, be sober, 
 (i. e. according to reason) not fashioning 
 (i. e. conforming) yourselves according to 
 the former lusts (old time affections for ex- 
 travagance, &e.) in your ignorane'e (for now 
 you are to know better) but be ye holy in all 
 manner of conversation, for the conversation 
 (conduct) of yoyiv fathers was vain, i. e. idle, 
 useless. They in general sung the latter 
 day glory that should be revealed,'^ with 
 pomp and glory — but understood it but 
 little. 
 
 With these views, I expect and desire, 
 christians to feel the love of God in their 
 
 %- ■ ^ ♦ 
 
METiloniST laiKOrr}. 
 
 53 
 
 hearts : that it will actually break forth too 
 in public praises : — " Praise is comely for 
 the upright/^ when made in a comely man- 
 . ner. So far, from desiring to hide our affec- 
 , lions and feelings of actual happiness, I 
 wish them so to be made known, by such as 
 .feel the spirit to do it right, that unbe- 
 lievers, only by seeing the manner of them, 
 anAy be convinced.* 1 feel persuaded, when 
 they proceed from the spirit of truth, they 
 cannot fail to convince bystanders and gain- 
 sayers. But to effect all this desired object, 
 our proceedings must be different ; and the 
 great desideratum, in my opinion, lies in the 
 absolutely indispensable restraints and go- 
 vernments, so positively enjoined by 8t» 
 Paul. Has he not said, as from the spirit 
 of God too, " let all things be done decently 
 and in order — let all be done unto edifying^ 
 for God is not the anthor of confusion^ but 
 of peace, as in all the churches of the saints..'^ 
 Repress then, the enthusiastic notion, that 
 
 * From this cause no meeting is so convincing as 
 a love feast, where each person gives a reason for the- 
 faith that is in him — ^^and I wish they were more 
 public. 
 
^4 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 grace comes so powerful to the saints, as 7 
 not to be restrained within the limits of de- 
 cency and order. Allow and urge too, that r 
 free agents may govern themselves — teach ^ 
 that holy men may restrain the spirit, so as ^ 
 to speak one by one ; and until occasion / 
 offers, to hold their peace, although they^ 
 have a spirit to speak ; for the spirits arejj' 
 subject to the prophets/' i. e. pBoaeho ' PO^v 
 Then we may expect to see, on many proper 
 occasions, saints actually praising God in 
 the great congregation ; not with unintelli- 
 gible shrieks, or violent jumpings, but as I 
 have sometimes witnessed, by a short clear^ 
 and rapturous^declaration, in rational words, 
 of the fulness of their joy and gladness. 
 Such a person, even springing up and mak* 
 ing his case known, would present such a 
 countenance of truth, as would convince. 
 If on the other hand, we see a person 
 earnestly weeping and praying, under a 
 sense of sin, yet visibly striving to observe 
 Paul's rules of restraint, we should per- 
 ceive, if we attended to iktm- closely, that 
 they were actually in affliction and grief. 
 If afterwards we can see such a person de- 
 livered, and he shows his joy by expressing 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 55 
 
 in words his thankful state and happiness, 
 he then acts to edification: — and the be- 
 holders say, God is in it of a truth. It is 
 very remarkable, that grace on such occa- 
 sions unseals the dumb tongues, and enables 
 his saints to give him real praise before 
 men. But to make all this edifying, men 
 must show by words and actions, that they 
 are actually urged and supported too, in all 
 they do and say, by a spirit of wisdom. 
 The most ignorant and unlettered, some- 
 limes in this way, prove the preternatural 
 wisdom best. But if on the other hand, there 
 be no spirit of interpretation (i. e. of expla^ 
 nation) in some, " let them, however moved, 
 keep silence in the church, and let them 
 speak to themselves and to God,^^ to the 
 end, that all may learn, and all may be 
 comforted." Finally, says St. Paul, "if 
 any man think himself spiritual, let him ac* 
 knowledge that these things are t he com- 
 m andments of the Lord But " if ye ob- 
 serve not these things^ and there come in 
 those that are untaught, will they not say 
 ye are madP^ meaning thereby, that they 
 would be justified in thinking so ; — and we 
 be justly shamed " by those who are with- 
 
r 
 
 56 METHODIST ERUOR. 
 
 ouU^ By such scriptural restraints, we 
 should hope to repress hypocrisy^ for now, 
 those that have only lungs and action, can 
 appear as saints : but if they had " to give 
 a reason for their faith/' to every extra ac- 
 tion, they would very soon betray their 
 spirit. 
 
 That many of old time could not possibly 
 know the sense of many things they heard, 
 and yet were excited to commemorate, we 
 may learn from such prophecies as these — 
 thus: Zach. ix. 9. rejoice greatly, daughter 
 of Zion ; shout, O ! daughter of Jerusalem ; 
 behold thy king cometh to thee, &c." — and 
 in Isaiah xii. 6, Cry out and shout, for 
 great is the holy one in the mid«t of thee.'^ 
 Now these proplietie verses, were verified^ 
 in that the whole multitude of the disci- 
 ples began to rejoice, and praise God with 
 a loud voice : and because the Pharisees 
 rebuked him, Jesus said, if these should 
 hold their peace, the stones would cry out,'^ 
 Luke xix. 37. Now ovoh this last, is not 
 commanded as an example, but is given as 
 the fact : the fact had to be, because it was 
 predicted in its general circumstances Many 
 may then have ihoutedj as they were accus- 
 
 1 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 57 
 
 tomed to do in other processions and trium- 
 phal entries : — all Israel shouted (80,000) 
 when David led up the ark ; — but all Israel 
 was never all holy. They were wont to 
 shout for a king in the camp — they shouted 
 in the battle array— they shouted equally 
 in false worship : Jhe people, when they 
 heard the wicked Herod, "gave a shout, 
 saying, It is the voice of a God and not of 
 a man I'i^they all shouted when they had 
 made them a golden calf !^o too, the 
 people of Lycaonia, said of Paul and Bar- 
 nabas, " lifting up their voices, the gods 
 have come down to us !'^2«.rinally, we are 
 
 * It ought to be observed by those who contend 
 for shouting in a literal sensBy that the term itself, 
 conveys us no sense of the triumphant words which 
 any given shout expressed ; and therefore, it is not 
 perceived how the scriptures can be said to be imitat- 
 ed by them. For instance, the "shout of a king,'^ 
 was probably, " God save the king !" Among our^ 
 selves, we perceive, that when we speak of one who 
 
 shouted greatly," we are not thereby informed 
 what sentiment his shout comprised. Such a shoutj 
 as with which the angels saluted the shepherds, was 
 indeed a welcome, shout — " Peace on earth and good 
 will to men'!"— But that some of our em^ty noise ^ 
 
I - 
 
 58 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 at least sure, from the sequel, that many of 
 those who rejoiced at Christ's entry iuto Je- 
 rusalem, knew him only as their temporal 
 
 I prince and deliverer, and soon afterwards 
 
 cried. Crucify him, crucify him. The most 
 that Jesus intimates is, that their sensibili- 
 ties were real ; and ev-en this he speaks in 
 terms of hyperbole^ I suppose. 
 
 On the other hand, troubles in scripture 
 are expressed some..^vhat thus : Gird 
 yourselves and lament, ye priests ; howl ye 
 ministers of the altar, for the offerings is 
 
 , withholden from the house of your God.'^ 
 
 Now what minister does howl because his 
 people neglect his preaching, and tiie 
 house of God? — Another says, cast dust 
 upon thy head," another prophet says, 
 
 which has been cheered as shouting, is any thing like 
 commended scripture — shouting, " is what demands 
 a doubt." The term shout, occurs but once in the 
 whole christian dispensation of the bible, and that was 
 the sinful shout of Herod's audience. Dr. Clarke, 
 has satisfactorily shewn, that the shout, mentioned, 
 1 Thess. iv. 16. should have been translated a com- 
 niand — of arise ye dead ! uttered like the voice of an 
 ' archangel and the sound of a trumpet. 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 59 
 
 6( sigji^ oh j soil of man, with the breaking of 
 thy loins, because of the evil that shall come 4^ 
 
 upon thee David says, " I am poured out ii i 
 like water, and my bones are out of joint — \ 
 and my heart is melted in my bowels.'^ 1^ 
 
 Thus have I shown, the general impas- 2 
 sioned manner of ancient expressions and ? i 
 gestures, both by showing how they ordina- - i \ \ 
 rily rejoiced, and how they mourned. But ] 
 ^ _ I have seen some persons, again and again,* j^*^ 
 quote such scriptures as are last mentioned, J^J 
 as exemplifying rules for our convictions ! S | i 
 what distortion of the contexts ! Joel i. 11. ^ 
 13, is manifestly predicting the coming fate j J j 
 of Jerusalem, and speaks of the necessary ^^- ^ 
 discontinuance of the usual altar-services, — ^i^J^ 
 and the breaking of the loins,'^ is to be 
 caused by " the tidings,'^ of a great army,* 
 which was to subdue them. When we see ^ 
 /.^^ men thus wiHtitg to deceive themselves, it is, Jvn^cn^^ 
 scarcely possible they should fail to mislead 
 others ! — 
 
 I will now proceed to redeem my promise, 
 to consider such of the old Testament pas- 
 sages i n detail, as are supposed to bear upon 
 the religious exercises in question. 
 
r 
 
 60 
 
 MUTHODIST EftKOK. 
 
 1^: 
 
 1 
 
 Isaiah, Ixii. 6, 7. ^* I have set wafchm6Yi« 
 tipon thy walls, oh ! Zion, which sliaU never 
 hold their peace day or night. Ye that make 
 mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give . 
 him no rest, till he establish, and till he make . 
 Jerusalem a praise in the earth." 
 
 Now all this is highly figurative prophecy, 
 and so much so, that its import, except as 
 we can develope it by its supposed likeness 
 'to subsequent events, is no more intelligible, 
 than the Revelations. Osterwald says, " the 
 prophet hgre speaks in the person of the 
 Messiah; and declares, that he will never 
 cease interceding with God, till the re- 
 demption of Israel.'^ Some of the Meth o- 
 djsts, say these are their ministers, 1 It may 
 first relate to the rebuilding of Jerusalem, 
 when the watchmen actually worked at, and 
 defended the walls from the enemy. It may 
 , too invite the then priests to'call steadfastly 
 on the Lord, till he actually re-establishes 
 the walls and the great Temple : and if the 
 prophecy be double, it may prefigure the 
 diligence and vigilance of the apostles, that 
 should come in the gospel. The Univer- 
 salists urge, that the whole chapter pleads 
 • for the entire restoration of Israel, and then. 
 
1 
 
 METHODIST ERKOU. 61 
 
 tlie land shall be called Bulab. All these 
 things was a vision of Isaiah, before the 
 captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 E^ekiel, xxi. 6, 7. Sigh, therefore, thou 
 son of man, (i. e. the prophet) with the break- 
 4^ i-ng of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before 
 J^their eyes i — And it shall be when they say, 
 S^'^ wherefore sighest thou ? that thou shalt an- 
 } swer, — for the tidings ; because it cometh : and 
 every heart shall melt, and all hands- shall be ^ 
 j feeble, and every spirit faint, and all knees 
 i shall be weak as \vater : behold! it shall be 
 brought to pass." 
 
 I have already cursorily referred to the 
 above scripture, but it seems to require some 
 further notice in this place, because the 
 words as they stand, have been so very 
 characteristic of some people's notions of re- 
 ligious emotion now a days, that they have 
 again and again been pressed into the 
 service of such. But this whole text, if re- 
 ferred to the context, is very plainly told to 
 be of quite another import ; and although 
 expressed under terms extremely hyperbo- 
 lical, clearly enough informs us, that Jeru- 
 salem shall soon experience the desolations , 
 
r 
 
 62 METHODIST ERROIl. 
 
 of war. Ezekiel was actually writing to ' 
 his fellow captives in Babylon, to reconcile 
 them still to abide there, and not to desire, 
 as they were wont to do, to join their kin- 
 dred in Jerusalem ; because of the tidings/^ 
 which he prophetically foresaw was again to 
 befall that city. He therefore goes on to' 
 tell the ''land of Israel," that God says,' 
 1 am against thee, and will draw forth 
 $fiirw^ my sh«»^, and will cut off from thee, the* 
 righteous (mark this!) and the wicked.'^ 
 Say, a " sword, a sword is sharpened." In . 
 short, the sword is the key-word to the whole 
 of the preceding violent affections of the 
 body ! 
 
 Ezekiel xxxiii. " Son of man (i. e. the 
 prophet) speak to the children of Israel and 
 say, when I bring the sword upon the land, 
 if they take four men of the coast, and set 
 them for their watchmen ; if when he seeth 
 the sword coming, he blow the trumpet, and 
 warn the people, — then he that taketh 
 warning shall deliver his soul — he that 
 doth not, his blood shall be upon his own 
 head, &c. I have set thee as a watchman, 
 therefore, thou shalt warn, &c." 
 
 Here, under the figure of a watchman, who 
 
1 
 
 ' METHODIST ERROR. 63 
 
 usually gave alarm by the blowing of his 
 trumpet, Ezekiel is admonished of his duty 
 as a watchman to Jerusalem, whose city 
 (see verse 21) is just then smitten." But 
 so far from its teaching gospel ministers, to 
 Mow their lungs like a trumjpet, as some 
 have inculcated, the context expressly shows, 
 it was used as a sign of warning ; and the 
 real manner intended was by speaking;- — 
 So thou son of man, thou shalt ^' speak to 
 warn," and thou shalt " speak," and " say, 
 unto the house of Israel, &c." See ver. 7 
 and 40. When we read in Joelii. "Blow 
 ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm 
 in my holy mountain," if we judge of it by 
 its context, we perceive it is to proclaim to 
 Jerusalem, that the predicted army is at 
 hand : a great people and strong, with 
 fire before and behind them, and his camp 
 very great." In Hozea, v. 8. we read, 
 "blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the 
 trumpet in Ramah : cry aloud at Beth-aven, 
 after thee, O ! Benjamin :" and this still 
 predicts the destruction of Israel ; and he 
 adds, " I have made known among the tribes 
 (of which Benjamin was one) that which 
 shall surely be." Both Hozea and Joel, 
 
6^ METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 have been used, to justify boisterous preacli^- 
 ing ! 
 
 In Jeremiah's Lamentations, chap. ii. 18, 
 SO, we read, " let tears run down like a 
 river day and night : give thyself no rest — - 
 cry out in the night — pour out their heart , 
 like water Why all these great afflic- 
 tions ? the context adds, for the life of tliy - 
 young children that faint for hunger, when 
 the women eat their fruit of a span long, and 
 the young and the old lie on the ground 
 (dead) in the streets." The whole of the 
 prophet's Lamentations is a poem^ and is 
 wrote in the most pathetic stile, of soft and 
 melancholy verse. His theme, like the 
 others, is the calamiiies of his desolate 
 country : but, all the first clause of this quo- 
 - tation, has been used as specially desciib- 
 log the anguish of sinners ! 
 
 Jeremiah xxiii. 9. Says, ^Miiine heart 
 within me is broken, because of the pro= 
 phets ; all my bones shake— I am like a 
 drunken man." This is not awakening;s at 
 the preaching of ministers, as has been 
 said : Oh, no ! It is because, both prophet 
 and priest is profane ;" because, t have 
 seen folly in the prophets of Samaria." 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 65 
 
 Job xxiv. i2. Says, men groan from out 
 of the city, and the soul of the wounded 
 crieth out; yet God layeth not folly to 
 them This has been quoted to advocate 
 groaning ! Now behold what a distortion ! 
 Job is actually representing the wickedness 
 of the people, and that they go unpunished ; 
 and he is so grieved at this last, thatje^ 
 ventures to declare, that " God layeth not 
 folly to them," because he suffers them to 
 live, although they have wounded and af- 
 flicted the bodies of their fellow men, even 
 to their groaning ! — 
 
 Cry and howl, son of man," Ezekiel 
 xxi. IS. are words which have been quot- 
 ed, to justify excessive religious concerns : 
 but the command, is to the prophet himself; 
 and besides, it is again, because of the 
 sword ; for it adds, ^' smite upon thy thigh, 
 for it shall be upon my people ; it shall 
 be upon all the princes of Israel — terrors by 
 reason of the sword." 
 
 Ezekiel. vi. 11. says. Thus saith the 
 Lord, smite with thine hand, and stamp with 
 thy foot, and say, alas ! for all the evil 
 abominations of Israel." The first clause 
 of this, has been quite a hackneyed quota- 
 
66 METHODIST ERROR, 
 
 (ion, for making noisy smitings and stamp- 
 ings popular. Now, if this means, that they 
 v/ere actually to be done, it was to have 
 been done by Ezekiel himself ; for the 
 words are thine hand and foot : But he did 
 neither of them, nor did he ever speak the 
 words to any one. The whole was his 
 ysion by the river Chebar; and the terms 
 at most are the im ag;er.^, for enforcing atten- 
 tion. We could easily have adduced other 
 instances of perversion, but we consider the 
 preceding as sufficient. 
 I J!/^ ^A^i/That God in his mysterious ceconomy of 
 B J^grace, may have been pleased to propose the 
 
 ^'''^'^^y^^ consideration of his will under dark sayings 
 and parables, we do not pretend to dispute. 
 He may intend to convey many lessons of 
 wisdom under a cloud of imagery ; but that 
 we should countenance the garblings of 
 ^ scraps, picked here and there from a bible 
 
 dictionary, (for they have in general no more 
 connexion with the things they are brought 
 to prove, than such random gatherings could 
 produce)^ is what we hope no sober christian 
 
 I * In this way, even the words of the wicked Festus 
 
 were introduced, because he chanced to speak with 
 " a loud voice as well might thej prove " there is 
 no God," because <' the fool" said it. 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 67 
 
 will ever consent to give his support to. To 
 judge justly and honestly of hyperbolical 
 words, we should surely be content to con- 
 sider them as God intended them : and where 
 shall we find that sense, but in the general 
 tenor of the whole passage. 
 
 But if we would contemplate real pas- 
 sionate emotions, warranted by the accom- 
 panying facts, let us consider such as these : 
 When Daniel saw the vision, the men that 
 were with him saw not the vision : but a 
 great quaking fell upon them — Dan. x. 7, 
 As Paul was going to Damascus, suddenly 
 there shined a light from heaven,* and he 
 fell to the ground ; and he trembling, and as- 
 tonished, said " Lord, what wilt thou have 
 me to do." — Acts ix. 4. For fear of him 
 the keepers did shake, and became as dead 
 men.'^ — Mat. xxviii. As soon then as he 
 (Jesus) had said, I am he, they fell to the 
 ground." — John, xviii. 6. Such passages as 
 the preceding, we are aware, have been ad- 
 duced, as amply justifying almost every ex- 
 cess which we have been accustomed to see 
 among us : for who is he, to resist such 
 jiowerf But what are the facts when calmly 
 considered ! In every case they are abso- 
 
68 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 lute miracles ; and intended too, in each 
 case, to seal to the end of the world, . the 
 memory of the most eventful things. In the 
 case too of Paul, the highest exertion of 
 power seemed necessary; for Paul had had 
 frequent access to many of the most faithful, 
 and exemplary christian martyrs, without 
 avail. Can it then be a candid and just in- 
 ference, to apply such extraordinary ope- 
 rations, to the daily ordinary conversions in 
 our chapels? But, says a caviller, every 
 conversion is a miracle, because, all God's . 
 acts are miracles. No logician, we know, 
 ^a.^^ would d«jje-to prove this by syllogism — and 
 all men of sense will agree, that to confound 
 God's ordinary operations of nature and 
 grace, with his special exertions of power, 
 is to confound all distinctions and discrimi- 
 nations, in language and things ; which can- 
 not be admitted! For St. Paul himself hath 
 consecrated the distinction, by saying, " God 
 hath wrought this special miracle.'^ Yet, 
 that several persons in our day, have, under 
 the sense of deep conviction and earnest 
 prayers for mercy, fallen, unconscious or 
 careless from their knees to the floor, when 
 the happiness of deliverance has come, I 
 J.0 most cordially believe and rejoice in too. 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 69 
 
 Nehemiab and Ezra, give a case, more 
 apparently like some of our more moving 
 meetings, than any thing else I know of. 
 Ezra iii. H. Says, " and they sang together, 
 and all shouted with a great shout, when 
 they praised the Lord : but many wept with 
 a loud voice, so that the people could not 
 discern the noise of the joy, from the weep- 
 ing." ^^That day, God made them rejoice 
 with great joy, so that the joy was heard 
 afar off.'^ — Neh. xii. 43. In the preceding) 
 we behold a plain detail of facts : the 
 people really rejoiced and wept. But we 
 are'no where told to follow it as an ex- 
 ample. We are to consider, that a whole 
 nation were here met together in the open 
 air, to celebrate their restoration to the most 
 signal, national benefits ; and what they did, 
 they had to. do loud, and b y concert^ Shout- 
 ing too, was a^ceremony of gladness : they 
 were returned from captivity — they wept 
 and rejoiced for gladness, to behold again 
 their native land : and some old men wept 
 from grief, because the new temple was in- 
 ferior to the old. All," could scarely 
 have been truly good persons, and all could 
 not have felt from sensations of piety ; but 
 
70 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 all could be very thankful for the recovered 
 blessings ; (they had found the lost Law also) 
 and as all were a people of lively emotions, 
 and the softening influence of God's spirit 
 was perhaps peculiarly present, they all 
 felt their hearts softened, and all were very 
 glad. 
 
 If the preceding were indeed rules for 
 our worship, then we should with equal pro- 
 priety, follow the other part of their acts. In 
 the case told by Nehemiah — the priests and 
 Levites, were previously sought out t o . make 
 thanks : and before beginning, they were 
 placed into two companies — this was their 
 business^ they sang also and sacrificed and 
 used trumpets and cymbals. To imitate 
 them too, we should eat, drink, and be merry : 
 <^ mourn not (said the Levites, for even then 
 it seems they ought to have desisted,) nor 
 weep : for all the people wept when they 
 heard the word of the law. Go your way, 
 eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send 
 portions — neither be sorry, for the Lord is 
 your strength : and all the people (observe 
 how readily their passions subsided,) went 
 their way to eat, and to drink, and make 
 great mirth.'' Neh. viii. 10, IS. 
 
METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 71 
 
 How this passionate people actually loved 
 Jerusalem as a place, may be seen in their 
 mournful and pathetic declaration in Baby- 
 lon. " By the rivers of Babylon, there we 
 sat down, yea, we wept when we remem- 
 bered Zion. If we forget thee, O 1 Jerusa- 
 lem, may my right hand forget her cunning, 
 ( i.r O il bo»K»to . work and - gGirbT eftd^) if I prefer .\ 
 thee not above my chief joy.'^ 
 
 To judge soberly of all such passionate 
 emotions, and hyperbolical words as we 
 have been considering in the preceding 
 pages, we ought rather to see how the 
 apostles acted from such examples. They 
 are our best g;uides^ . Or we ought rather to 
 look, if we will prefer the old Testament 
 rules, to such writers, (and there are many) 
 whose sense is clear and without parables. 
 Or if we would affect to obey literally, their 
 highly figurative expressions, we should be 
 brought to consider hovv many of them are 
 quite impracticable. They should run 
 like «iighty men,'jj;hey should howl — rend 
 their hearts, and their garments — wallow 
 themselves in the ashes — pour dust upon 
 their heads — praise him in the dance^ and 
 with timbrels and harjps^ pour out their liver, . 
 
METHODIST EKBOR. 
 
 break their teeth with gravel stones — divide 
 their tongues — lick the dust — make them 
 /Jike a wheel, &c. &c. for all these things 
 . ^A^- were commanded by the prophets. And 
 %t / what can we make of this, viz. all they 
 y-f^^^^ I that be fat upon earth shall eat and wor- 
 
 Uhip?" 
 
 lb The prophet Joel, has furnished so many 
 '^^vf^** Mexts, for those who most delight in encou- 
 ' IIp"^//" raging excessive emotions, that it may per- 
 ^ haps be useful to give a more extended re- 
 view of his prophecy. The two first chap- 
 ters, they suppose, abound in lively des- 
 , criptions of God's awakening and convict- 
 ing power, and the condition of unconverted 
 priests, and neglected congregations.' But it 
 is nevertheless clear, from his own declara- 
 tions therein, that he is actually foretelling 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, by the northern 
 army from Babylon ; and his imagery there- 
 of, while it proves the elevation of oriental \ 
 metaphor in general, is in fact, his picture 
 ci a present calamity, then experienced, in 
 the ravages of an army of locusts. The 
 locusts and the canker worm, says he, hath 
 eaten the vine ; and the field and the corn, 
 and the wheat and the barley, is wasted 5 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 73 
 
 the wine and the^oil is dried up; and the 
 land mourneth : — therefore, he exclaims, 
 " Awake ye drunkards and weep ; and 
 howl, all ye drinkers of wine, for it is cut oJi' 
 from your mouth !" Surely he did not care 
 for the drunkards : but he expresses the fact 
 of their deprivation. And because that the 
 earth was desolate, and could not yield its 
 accustomed offerings of its fruits to the Lord, 
 he says, " be ashamed, (i. e. confused) O I 
 ye husbandmen ; howl, O ! ye vine- dressers, 
 for the wheat and the barley ; gird your- 
 selves and lament, ye priests ; howl ye mi- 
 nisters of my God^ because the harvest of 
 the field is perished, and the offerings are 
 (therefore) withholden from the house of your 
 God.'^ The whole first chaper is occupied 
 with a similar description of their distress. 
 The second chapter begins with, "blow ye the 
 trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my 
 holy mountain ; (meaning Jerusalem) let all 
 the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the 
 day of the Lord cometh (meaning the 
 scourge of an army.) He then compares 
 the army to come, and its devastations, with 
 that which they then witnessed from the 
 locusts : and at the ISth verse, he exhorts 
 
 G 
 
74 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 them to repentance^ as the only means to 
 avert their judgments ; so that the Lord may 
 be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 
 He says, therefore, " turn ye with fasting, 
 weeping and mourning, and rend your heart 
 and not your garment : — ^Gather, therefore, 
 the people, let the ministers of the Lord 
 weep between the porch and the altar ; and 
 let them say, spare thy people, and give not 
 thy heritage to the heathen — Finally, to 
 comfort them, he says, rejoice in the Lord ; 
 (for) your floors shall be full ; and I will re- , 
 store to you the years, that the locust and 
 the canker-worm, and the caterpillar hath 
 eaten; 7ny great army which 1 sent you of ^ 
 them. 
 
 More could be added from Joel, but the 
 above, is a specimen of the whole ; and 
 several of our brethren, I doubt not, will re- 
 member the persons of some, who kept them * 
 from the real conception of the subject. 
 
 Malachi, chapter ii. 1, 2, says, " 0 ye 
 priestf if ye will not lay it to heart, to give 
 glory to my name, I will even send a curse 
 upon you.'^ This has been adduced as a 
 call, to cry out, glory / glory ! as some do. 
 Without here opposing the thing itself, it 
 
METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 76 
 
 is proper to say, it means no such tiling in 
 this place. But it meant that the priests did 
 not glorify God in their acts, but " profaned 
 mine altar/^ and therefore, " they are curs- 
 ed.'^ |jM«Hto 4> gHy M 94 -s " t he * pft » 8 a'gtji iH * Isai a fa, 
 xxix. 9,y^^ stay yourselves and wonder ; cry 
 *^ye out, a!id cry : they are drunken, but not 
 with wine; they stagger, but not with strong 
 driuk -y but the whole reason of this, is, that 
 an army is sent against them : for the con- 
 text says, " 1 will raise Jbr^s against thee, 
 and thou shalt be brought down ; 1 will dis* 
 tress thee, (as a nation) and thou shalt be in 
 heaviness and sorrow.'' 
 
 The writer is not aware, that there are 
 any other passages in the old testament, 
 bearing upon the present subject, which 
 could not be explained in unity with the 
 present views. To adduce more cases, 
 would probably be needless — and would 
 certainly burden both the book and the 
 reader. If he has misapprehended any 
 passages, or unwarily perverted any, *^ let 
 him, that is without sin herein, cast the first 
 stone !" , , 
 
 Some of our brethren, we Isnow, in their 
 :5eal for noisy meetings, so called, are some- 
 
76 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 times prone to bring every kind of scriptural 
 expression, into some kind of action,- To 
 illustrate this idea, consider some of the like 
 sentences, to wit : Give unto the Lord, the 
 glory (iff. f)t'aise^ due' to 'Ms name — bless 
 (i. e. praise) the Lord, oh ! my soul. My. 
 soul shall make Im* boast in the Lord, — re- 
 joice in the Lord, — extol his name, — make his 
 wonder known, &c with such persons ex- 
 hortations like these are always desired to be 
 fulfilled with loud ejaculations and strong emo- 
 tions; — -yet it is nevertheless the fact, that 
 every one of them could have been executed 
 without utterance or action. The soul may 
 have done all those things, by itself and in 
 silence. We could muse, or write, or speak 
 bis praise. Without attempting to deter- 
 mine, what is in itself uncertain, I only mean 
 to say, we beg the question, in drawing ab- 
 solute rules from such vague data. I sup- 
 pose they express things done, both publicly 
 and privately ; sometimes by the silent voice 
 , of the soul, and sometimes by mouth ; and 
 j certainly by writing ; and by music and sing- 
 
 f^'Ol/^ Some have referred to the tokens of wor- 
 
 ship in heaven, because it abounds with in- 
 
METHODIST ERROl?. 
 
 stances of loud and strong worship. " And 
 I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels 
 round the throne, saying with a loud voice, 
 worthy is the Lamb — and the beasts said 
 Revelation v. 11. And they rest 
 not day and night, saying, holy, holy holy,'' 
 Revelation iv. 8. All agree that the revela- 
 tions are mysterious and hidden ; and we may 
 be excused, I think, if with Dr. Clarke, we 
 frankly confess " we do not understand 
 them^ But we are constrained to think it 
 must be different from our icorship^ since 
 beasts and birds there, have so much to ex- 
 hibit in it. Besides, we expect that any 
 worship designed for the ears of an innume" 
 rable company, must be loud to our senses. 
 Who could bear the voices of seven thunders/ 
 Having thus gone through the proposed 
 review of old Testament citations, and having 
 shown as we went along, how garbled and 
 partial many quotations have been made,^ta 
 uphold an illusory theory, 1 come now in 
 the course of my plan, to consider that 
 " more perfect way," revealed in the gos- 
 pels : and let us rather look to the effect 
 which the first preaching of our Lord po- 
 duced. 
 
 at. 
 
78 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It is intended to notice here, the power and influence 
 of religion, as spoken of in the gospels, before the 
 ascension of our Lord, and the descent of the Holy 
 Ghcist. 
 
 IN preparing for the consideration of this 
 chapter, 1 have endeavoured to seek into 
 the import and effect of all those occur- 
 rences, recorded by the four evangelists, 
 without any design to avoid an y point which 
 might seem to bear against me. I wish my 
 reader might be disposed to give them his 
 careful perusal, with the same caudid views 
 to seek truth only. It will soon be perceiv- 
 ed by such, that men hear and believe the 
 words of Christ, without any powerful emo- 
 tions. It might even surprise a mind imbued 
 with such high notions of power, as has been 
 expressed in the old Testament, and as has 
 been seen^eseaHby ourselves in our own day.^ 
 Let the reader observe the manner and 
 character of the following citations, to wit : 
 ^Mat. iv. 17, from that time Jesus began 
 to preach, and to say, Kepent. — Seeing 
 Simon and Andrew, he saith unto them, 
 follow me, and I will make you fishers of 
 
METHODIST EBROH. 
 
 79 
 
 men : and straightway they left their nets 
 and followed him.^^ — And again, " he saw 
 James and John, and he called them, and 
 they immediately left their ship and follow- 
 ed him/' — ^' And they brought unto him all 
 sick people, &c. and he healed them.'' — And 
 he seeing the multitudes, went up into a 
 mountain, and his disciples came unto him, 
 and he taught them, saying, " blessed are the 
 poor in spirit,'' &c. The eJffect of this great 
 sermon of three entire chapters. Mat. v. to 
 vii. is, that " when he had ended these 
 sayings," the people were astonished at his 
 doctrine, for he taught them as one having 
 authority.! lS^_al so other whole chapters 
 of his sermons,^iii. xviii. xx. and xxii. of 
 Mathew. Thus they heard him " who 
 spake as never man spake !" No excessive 
 emotions among his hearers, and no effort in 
 him to produce it. He sows the words of 
 truth, and leaves them to grow, or not. 
 There is indeed a beautiful and rare in- 
 stance of tender penitence, in Mary, who 
 washed his feet with her tears, and anointed 
 him with precious ointment : — and our Lord 
 himself, seemed to regard it as a special 
 case, intended to memorialize his burial with 
 tears I for he says, " her act shall be spoken 
 
80 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 of as a memorial throughout the whole 
 world." This extra act, seems to have 
 affinity with the extra acts used by the po- 
 pulace, in his kingly triumphant entry into 
 Jerusalem : — one memorializes his victory, 
 the other his death. He proceeds to heal the 
 leper — to heal the Centurian's servant, — the 
 mother of Teter — the sick of the palsy, &c. 
 The two first show no religious fervour. 
 Peter's mother, arises and serves him ; and 
 the palsied man arose and went to his 
 own house." And the multitude marvelled 
 and glorified God, which had given such 
 power unto men,^^ was the most that was 
 done. By the word glorified, i^fethis place, 
 we can only understand, that they ascribed, 
 or assigned the acts, as belonging to the glory 
 of God, and not of " man." When he next 
 sends out the twelve, he says, ^' go preach, 
 saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand :" 
 no strange emotions are predicted as the 
 efiVct of their preaching, although he tells 
 what effects they should see. Mathew xv. 
 30. " The multitude wondered when they 
 saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be 
 whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to 
 see : and they glorified the God of IsraelJ^ 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 81 
 
 These are the strongest expressions of emo- 
 tion, even from the preaching of Christ 
 himself! Two Iftpftur, indeed, ''cried out, JKm%^ 
 have mercy (i. e. pity) on us, O ! Lord, thou 
 son of David hut when he stood still, and 
 said, " what will ye, that I shall do unto 
 you?'^ they say, ^^Lord, that our eyes may 
 be opened they think not of their hearts ! ^ 
 In this case they were obliged to cry out, 
 to be heard, for a " great multitude followed 
 him." When restored, all they did was to 
 follow him. 
 
 Perhaps as strong a case of religious af- 
 fection, as could have occurred, was the 
 Lord's supper, Mathew xxvi. S6 to 30. 
 Nothing however is particularly mentioned, 
 save that after hearing him : " they sung an 
 hymn and went out.'' Indeed, in all his 
 preaching and miracles, they appear always 
 to have acted only as hearers and observers. 
 No religious fervour appears in any case. 
 The only case like it, is, when the multi- 
 tudes (as he went up to Jerusalem) cried, 
 saying, hosanna to the Son of David : 
 blessed is he that cometh i n the name of the 
 Lord, hosanna (i. e. praise) in the highest.'^ 
 See Math. xxi. 8, 9. Mark, xi. 9; 10, — and 
 
82 
 
 METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 Luke xix. 37, 38. — The Pharisees said, 
 " master, rebuke thy disciples,'' he answer- 
 ed, if these should hold .their peace, the 
 stones would cry out." Disciples here 
 means, a// the followers — see Mathew, who 
 says, the multitudes — great multitudes— 
 and all the city was moved.'' These acts 
 were all offered to him as a king, a temporal 
 deliverer from the Roman yoke ; and the 
 whole acts were necessary to fulfil a pro- 
 phecy, which said, " behold thy king cometh, 
 sitting upon an ass." It was the passing 
 act of a marching populace : and could not 
 have been religious devotion, other than as 
 they regarded him as a gift from God ; for 
 these very people, soon after cried out, 
 crucify him, crucify him — away with such 
 a fellow from the earth." Consider too, all 
 their actions : — " they spread their garments 
 in the way : and others cut branches from the 
 trees, and strewed them in the way." Our 
 Lord himself, when questioned respecting 
 these cries, referred them to the prophecy: 
 ^' out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, 
 thou hast perfected praise,^' In another 
 place, he says, ^' I come to fulfil, that not 
 one jot or tittle may be broken." These 
 
METHODIST EBROR. 
 
 men seem to have rejoiced, as having a great 
 temporal deliverer : — they had been ex- 
 pecting one ; they neither sang nor prayed, 
 but they went up to the temple, as bands, in 
 triumph. It is not insinuated that v^e should 
 imitate them ; — in fact, we cannot, in spread- 
 ing our garments, and strewing our floors of 
 worship with branches. But we have Christ's 
 opinion of the effect of his ministry in his 
 answer to John^s messengers : — Go shew 
 John again those things, which ye do hear 
 and see : viz. the blind receive their sight, 
 the lame walk, the dead are raised up, and 
 the poor have the gospel preached unto 
 them.'' On such a proper occasion, he infers 
 no proof from the visible power of religion on 
 the heart, by any outward signs which the 
 4jBcipients manifested. If we behold the 
 man who was born blind ; Lazarus raised 
 from the dead; and other miracles wrought ; 
 we see. the 4«cipient, in one case, " went his 
 wayj^'^'and the other is let go and in 
 such conspicuous favours, we see no other 
 expressions at most, than that they worship- 
 ed him ; i. e. made him homage. How shall 
 we then regard such triumphant \siugu&.^e, as, 
 in the entry into Jerusalem, other, than as 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 the shouts and acclamations of the popu- 
 lace, when beholding an^king ? The same 
 multitude, even at the same timej called 
 him only a prophet, " the prophet of Na- 
 zareth," Mathew xxi, 11. They did not 
 worship, or reverence him as God ; there- 
 fore, they do not present us any rule of de- 
 votion. They praised God indeed, for 
 sending them " a Icing in the name of the 
 Lord " But as Christ well knew the 'pro- 
 phecies concerning this very entrance must 
 be all fulfilled, he said truly, the praise was 
 so essential to the character of the entrance, 
 that if they should have desisted, the stones 
 would have been compelled to sound his 
 praise^ meaning by this hyperbole of ex- 
 pression, that it was impossible it should be 
 otherwise : " for the Lord by the mouth of 
 his prophet had spoken it I'' " not one jot or 
 tittle could be broken !" 
 
 Having now exhibited all that Christ 
 said SLU^taught, as told in the fouryospe ls, 
 we will now proceed to the Acts of the 
 Apostles and by seeing their actionsjlheiv 
 preaching, and their examples of worship,*^ 
 we shall (fiscern how the holy Ghost, the 
 Comforter, himself affected them, and their 
 
^'^l!^ Cc^^ ^-LJ^ O --»-»-^-£AX«_> 
 
METHODIST EllROH. 
 
 85 
 
 hearers ; and thus we shall learn all that 
 t he word of God has left us -upoa this.,mAt- 
 t ei\ If we will but be content to make this 
 our rule and guide, we may not fear to err 
 much. 
 
 The simplicity of the primitive christian 
 worship, (says Dr. Clarke) is worthy of 
 particular notice and admiration. Here 
 (in the Acts) are no apparatus to impress 
 the senses, and produce emotions in the 
 animal system, " to help the spirit of devo- 
 tion/' as has been foolishly said ; bat, in the 
 acts, we find the true model after which 
 every church should be builded.^' V-. 
 
 H 
 
 'lip' 
 
8G 
 
 METHODIST ERROK. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 It will now be endeavoured to examine the deport- 
 ment, character and habits of christians, after the 
 ascension ; and when the Spirit, the Comforter, ac- 
 tually influenced the hearts and lives of the first 
 christians : and by their eccample, I shall contend 
 ive ought now to be influenced and regulated. 
 
 From a careful perusal of the whole new 
 Testament, after the ascension, we can, I 
 think, boldly challenge any sober reader, 
 or candid critic, to produce even a solitary 
 instance of screaming^umping up and down 
 in the same place, (when not walking, I 
 Rieai))^j5rshouting,^in any meeting assembled 
 ^,.^1 for religious worship. On the contrary, 
 
 ^^ 5^ the quiet attention, and the inculcation of 
 
 ) sobriety, gravity, decency, and order,^^ 
 
 \l [ and acting to edification, is very remarka- 
 
 l bly enjoined. Even St. Paul, when he had 
 
 preached till midnight, had such still atten- 
 tion, that a young man actually fell asleeio, 
 \ iL*r^' ^^'^ ^ell from the window of a t^hig^ story. 
 
 Only let any candid inquirer, with a view 
 io this object, begin with the Acts, and read 
 
 i1 
 
METHODIST ERROR. 
 
 87 
 
 the Epistles quite through to Revelations, • v, . 
 and he cannot fail to he persuaded of the .'^ 
 truth of my assertion. ' ' • 
 
 Being fully persuaded, that in the pro- 
 mulgation of the ^osp el^ we have a more 
 glorious dispensation/' than ever they pos- »^ 
 sessed under the ^w, I shall endeavour to 
 be very minute in searching from its exam- 
 ples, for all our rules of godliness. It 
 amply instructs both preachers and people. 
 I shall therefore endeavour to analyze the 
 whole, by classing under several heads of 
 arrangement, all which ha^ been said, S i 
 t ausht , or done* for our instruction or ful- T 
 filment. I shall therefore notice : — fi{;st^ t j ^ 
 the extent of their rules : second , the ^ i\ 
 speeches, teachings and sayings of the \^ 
 Apostles, for all our religious instruction : j ^ 4 
 
 ijiir(J. its effect on the hearers and first chris- ; r * J| 
 tians, and their opinion ortheirown exet"- %J v 1 
 cises : — fo u d{u t li e 'o p i h io iTs fo SSd m' the first , y'^tj:^! 
 clriistians by their enemies; and of what " 
 things they accused them : — £fth, evidences - "f^ 
 of the manners and habits of the first chris- i % 1^1 
 tians, and of their strict observance of the * ^^i! 
 rules of decency and or^er, and of their res- 
 tvaints of the spirit . \ S 
 
88 Instruction and Rules of Conduct 
 
 /^J^iicii^ First ytherif all necessary rules of holy 
 tifriC^^ living have heen communicated — as is prov- 
 by the following citations : — viz. 
 Acts i. 1, This treal^Jse have I made of 
 ^ h^'^^^ ^ M that Jesus began both io'do and to teach.^' 
 ^ syji"^'^ -A^cts i. Sf " And Jesus^, speaking of the 
 iJiivgs pertaining to the kingdom of God.'^ 
 
 Acts XX. 20y Paul at Ephesus, before the 
 elders, said ye know, how that I kept back 
 nothing that was profitaMe unto you, but 
 have shewed you, and taught you publicly, 
 repentance toward God, and faith toward 
 . ' Jesus Christ." 
 
 Acts XX. 27, For I have not shunned to 
 .declare unto you the whole counsel of God.'^ 
 . And in verse 35 — " I have shewed you all 
 ; things.'^ We therefore, perceive from the 
 foregoing citations, that nothing, which could 
 V be profitable for us has been withheld. ^ Oujf 
 
 rule Q/'/ai(4(,the 2iiscipline) also confi rms this, 
 r Second, the 'speeches, teacliings and sayings 
 . ^Ctii^ J of the Apostles for all our religious instruc- 
 ^ ^•i^V-y tion and conduct. 
 
 The first general meeting of christians, 
 after the ascension, is described in the Acts^i.^/i. 
 14. viz. these all continued with one ac- 
 cord in prayer and supplication." The next 
 
From the Jlpostles, 89 
 
 was on the day of Pentecost, chapter ii. 
 They were all of one accord (i. e. by ap- 
 pointment) in one place, and suddenly there 
 came a rushing mighty wind from heaven, and 
 filled all the house where tliey were sitting, 
 and cloven tongues, as of fire, sat upon each 
 of them, and they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost?^ Now observe the effect of the 
 miracle: none scream, nor shout, nor jump, 
 but they began to speak with other tongues, 
 as the spirit gave them utterance.'^ . Here 
 the power was extraordinary ! We have no 
 gift of tongues — neither doth the S f j^^m ake Sp^ 
 us suddenly do any act of s[ieech, especially 
 in unknown languages, for its purposes— it 
 were idle to attempt to use such a case for 
 our precedent. Was it not a most notable , 
 miracle" i iideed > to commemorate, the divine ^^t^S^.. 
 mission of the first Apostles and disciples to 
 the end of time ! How appropriate too, the 
 manner of the miracle ; tongues rested upon 
 their heads ; to show by what power they 
 were to speak with tongues ; and being cloven, 
 showed the 'plurality of languages by which 
 they were to persuade and convince! What 
 was the effect of all this — the beholders 
 were all amazed/^ and said,. What meaneth 
 
 H % 
 
 • ULl 
 
 tytXT 
 
■i- » v' 
 
 9 i ^ 90 Iiistnidbu and Hides of Conduct 
 
 # • 5 * • this ! And some were silly enough to say 
 
 ; ♦"i tliey were drunken — some of such may not 
 
 ^ I have been near enough to hear if any sense 
 
 i ' : ' . were uttered. But ail these wonderful things, 
 
 * so far from producing extravagance of erao- 
 * 'j ^ tion, or making Peter turbulent, makes him 
 
 * wise enough forth with, to stan^ up and de- 
 liver a long and edifying sermon. — In all 
 this^ there was no screaming, nor shouting, 
 nor jumping.* His effort was to explain it, 
 
 * " In all this thef was no screaming, jumping, nor 
 shouting!" as expressions like this, must hereafter 
 often occur in the following remarks, I wish now 
 to premise this general declaration respecting them. 
 I have not the remotest aim at arrogance or triumph 
 thereby. I feel too sober and too solicitious to do 
 some good, to indulge in any intemperance of expres- 
 sion knowingly. But I consider that many quota- 
 tions would be lost upon the ordinary reader, if not 
 occasionally aroused in this manner, to consider by a 
 seeming challenge, whether in that case any of these 
 emotions under such fair opportunities, did or did not 
 exist. In this manner too, I suppose, I avoid much 
 circumlocution and repetition of arguments. I hope 
 therefore none will allow themselves to be offended 
 by any similar remarks. But let us cheerfully in- 
 quire after truth, and obey it in the love of it. 
 
From the Apostles. 
 
 94 
 
 and to asenbe it to the power of Jesus, whom 
 they slew : He hath shed forth this which 
 you see and when they had heard this, 
 considering how ill they had used the God 
 of sucli power, they were pricked to the 
 heart,'' and said, What shall we do — this was 
 their fee^ngs. He exhorting thera^said, Re- 
 pent, and be baptised ; then they that gladly 
 received his word (the way of repentance) 
 and were baptised, were about 3000." 
 
 In this great assemblage of people (for 
 3000 were only part,) no confusion occurred, 
 all was heard and all was intelligible : and 
 behold how they lived afterwards, ^^they 
 continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine 
 and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, 
 and in yraijers ; and daily they met in the 
 temple, and did eat their meat with gladness 
 of heart,'' (mark how minute things are 
 told, as though we should miss n6thing) 
 praising God, (thanking him) and having 
 favour with all the people.^' Now here we 
 have an entire picture, of the original de- 
 portment of a great religious meeting, even 
 in the very instance of their first and mira- 
 \ culous blessing. How carefully is the whole 
 expounded to the understanding of bystan- 
 
9% 
 
 Instruction and Rules of Conduct 
 
 (lers : that they might be had in favour of all 
 the people. 
 
 In Acts iii. IS, Peter makes a speech of 
 14 verses — saying, " why marvel, ye at this, 
 as though by our power we had made this 
 man walk he eudeavours straightway to 
 X'^yr^f^h'- expound what they see, ^Acts iv. 8, Peter 
 begins a speech of IS verses, thus : " then 
 Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto 
 them, Ye rulers and elders, if we be examin- 
 ed this day of the good deed done to the im- 
 potent man Mark how he labours to ex- 
 Ta^'^ plain it.f^cts v. IS, ^^And by the hands 
 of the Apostles were many signs and won- 
 ders wrought among the people, and be- 
 lievers were the more added to the Lord : 
 multitudes of men and women — and them 
 which were vexed with unclean spirits, and 
 ^^^r"^ they were healed every one.''^cts chap, vii, 
 Stephen when stoned made a speech of 60 
 verses — beginning thus : " men and brethren 
 hearken : ye do always resist the Holy Ghost," 
 (verse 55 :) "But he being full of the Holy 
 Ghost, (mark when he is full^ he does not 
 any of our violent acts,) lookedup steadfastly 
 into heaven, and saw the glory of God does 
 he scream 1 no^ he says^ " behold I see thei 
 
J 
 
 From the apostles. 93 
 
 son of man how very composed and intel- 
 ligent is his whole speech. 
 
 Acts ix. 4. 6, Tells the conversion of 
 St. Paul — " he fell to the earth, and trem- 
 bling and astonished, he said, Lord what 
 wilt thou have me to do Consider the sud- 
 den light from heaven — that he was three 
 days without sight, and without eating or 
 drinking ; and that scales actually fell from 
 off hjs eyes. May we liken ours to his? 
 No — his was a " special" miracle; but mark 
 how rational he was under it all. He at 
 once says, Lord, what will thou have me 
 to do?" (verse 2i,) and x\ll who hear<l 
 him were amazed." ^ 
 
 Acts X. SC), Peter (in eight verses) 
 preaches to the family of Cornelius the 
 centurian — he offers an explanation of his 
 doctrines. ^Acts xi. Peter preaches ( 
 eighteen verses,) to explain to the Apostles, 
 the act of the spirit respecting the same Cor- 
 nelius : all is calm and peaceful. 
 
 Acts xi. ^o. 2i>, Barnabas, who was 
 full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, came to 
 Antioch, and saw the grace of God — he was 
 glad:^^ he showed no violent emotions, though 
 so full, but " exhorted them all to cleave 
 unto God." 
 
9 jb Instruction and Rules of Conduct 
 
 Acts xiii. 14. 16, Paul and Barnabas, 
 visit the synagogue at Antiocli, and after 
 hearing the law and the Prophets, and be- 
 ing urged by the rulers to give any word 
 of exhortation, " Paul stood up and said, 
 Give audience and he expoundsin fourteen 
 verses. And when the Gentiles, (verse 48) 
 heard the tidings for them^ they were glad, 
 and glorified (i. e. praised) the word of 
 the Lord:" and the disciples (verse 52) were 
 filled with'joy, and with the Holy Ghost ; but 
 ^tft.T7»- no strange si^ns are toldl^Acts xvi. 18, 
 Paul at Philippi, went out of the city by the 
 river side, where prayer was wont to be 
 made : and we sat down and spake unio the 
 women which resorted thither ; and the heart 
 of Lydia was opened no manner of it is 
 told. 
 
 Acts xvi. 25 f Paul and Silas when in 
 prison, expressed their love to God, by 
 • • singing praises no shouting or scream - 
 P^T^^ log 1^ Acts xix. 11, And God wrought 
 special miracles by the hands of Paul, so 
 that from his body were brought unto the 
 sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the dis- 
 eases went from them." No other effects 
 are told, 
 
From the Apostles, vo 
 
 Hee^n connexion with the preceding, three ^ 
 distinguished speeches of Paul : chap. xxii. 4l*i^"^ 
 iko i k - to the Jews — S3rd to the council ,^d vi3^ 
 ^4th to the governor: lu each case, all he 
 does, is to deliver a plain detail of scripture j - 
 truth; he urges no emotions from the power j i^* 
 of religion. 
 
 Finally, some were called Boanarges, 4^ 
 sons of thunder, i. e. alarmers ; in contradis- 
 tinction to consolers. But even these alar- 
 mers have left no examples of screaming, &c. 
 
 If the* reader has been at the pains, in 
 the preceding examination, to look into the ^ ^ 
 several speeches referred to, he must have '^'^ 
 been struck, with their uniform character of^^r > 
 moderation and forbearance; they never r 4^^^ 
 strive to exaggerate evils, (they say little of^ « 
 hell fire,) nor do they ever use (as we do ^11 i 
 now,) old Testament inflammatory words to^ 
 excite their hearers. They seem steadily^ 
 to act as husbandmen^ who sow their seed, ^ 
 but leave the event calmly to God.^ Paul 
 may plant and A polios water : but it is God ♦ / 
 
 who must give the increase." Although, j/ 
 too, they travel among the Heathen, and ^» 
 among the Jews of the Law, they never 
 make any railing accusation against thcm.J^ 
 
96 Instruction and Rules of Conduct 
 
 ^'hey in fact seem to leave all in their own 
 ways, wbo cannot be affected by the hearing 
 of their truths. When I have heard some of 
 our ministers, very careful to preach our 
 better way, by declaiming against their 
 forms, decrees, &c. I have thought, so did 
 got St. Paul.^ These men too, in all their 
 communications are simple, unassuming and 
 serene- — they though Jews,' follow not the 
 habits of the old Jews, by rending their 
 garments or defiling their heads with dust. 
 Mark too, how wonderfully simple in the 
 arrangement of their sermons — in fact, there 
 is not one sermon properly so called, in the 
 whole new Testament — they are all exhor- 
 tations — no dividing and subdividing among 
 them. Whence have we our forms, but 
 from the innovations of Rome and the 
 
 * My reader may here discern, hov/ very far it is 
 from my natural character, to be a medlar^ or busy- 
 body in other men's religious concerns. I have 
 hitherto lived without reproach in this matter, and 
 now \ interfere, with very great reluctance and con- 
 cern. I may truly say with Cowper, to a spirit 
 formed like mine, public exhibition is mortal poison." 
 May God, whom I wish to serve, bless this my en- 
 deavour to be useful ! 
 
From the Jpostles. 
 
 97 
 
 schools of logic. I often think we should 
 be much more edified, if we could hear 
 more of God's word, and less of the 
 speaker's : a text, is but a morsel, where we 
 might have had the improvement in the same 
 time of an whole chapter. Besides, it seems 
 an idle waste of time, to be methodically 
 proving by detail, all the propositions of 
 the subject, when nine times out of ten, all 
 that is sought for, would be cheerfully pre- 
 conceded by the whole audience. We do not 
 want texts explained, so much as we want 
 their improvement, and the exhortation. 
 This digression, on a subject which is worth 
 some consideration, causes me to remember 
 some pertinent remarks on preaching, by Dr. 
 A. Clarke. "Beware (says he) of too 
 much dividing and subdividing— how little 
 of this do we see in the discourses of the Pro- 
 phets or Apostles ! apply every thing as 
 you go along, and when done, learn to make 
 an end. 1 have often preached only ten to 
 fifteen minutes at a time, because I had no 
 more to say : to continue longer, merely to 
 fill up the time, is a shocking profanation : 
 as to matter, preach Jesus,- — his attone- 
 ment,— -his love to a lost world ; and through 
 
08 Exercises and Effects of Religion. 
 
 him, proclaim a full, free, and present salva- 
 tion, and God will bless you wherever you 
 go.'^ _ 
 
 J come now in my appointed order, to speak 
 of the EFFECTS which the first preaching 
 had on the hearers and first christians ^ and 
 their opinion of their own exercises. 
 
 Acts iii. 6. 8, The lame man whom 
 Peter healed : Peter said, rise up and 
 walk, and he leaping up, stood, and walked, 
 and entered with them into the temple, walk- 
 ing and leaping, and praising God ; and the 
 beholders were filled with amazement." In 
 this case, mark, he was commanded to rise 
 up and use ^ his limbs — so he jumped up, 
 
 stood,^^ and then walked, and afterwards 
 leaped. Query, — Would not any one of us, 
 under like restoration of helpless limbs, 
 have made a lively use of them, even with- 
 out religious affection ? But all we have oc- 
 casion to remark here, i», that it was not 
 irresistible grace, which made him leap : 
 for he stood part of the time at least. The 
 remainder of the time he had to move, be- 
 ca,use he was going on the road to the 
 
Exercises and Effects of Beligion, 99 
 
 temple ; and he did it lively, because his heart 
 was glad. His leaping, I suppose, was for 
 his own gladness, and his ^* praise/^ was for 
 God. ^Acts iv. 24, When their own com- 
 pany heard from Peter and John, how they 
 had been treated, because of restoring the 
 said lame man, "they lifted up their voices 
 to God, with one accord, (how ?) and said, 
 Lord, thou art God &c. — making thence a 
 prayer of six verses : and when they had 
 prayed, (verse 31,) the place was shaken 
 where they were assembled, and they were 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost : (and what 
 did they do then ?) and they spake the word 
 with boldness, and with great power, (no 
 screaming or jumping!) gave the Apostles 
 witness, and great grace was upon them all.'^ 
 Acts ix. 36. 40, "When Dorcas, 
 who was full of good works, and alms 
 deeds, was restored to life by Peter, she open- 
 ed her eyes and sat up she made no leap- 
 ing, &c. ! 
 
 Acts X. 44, "While Peter yet spake, 
 (in the Centurian's house,) the Holy Ghost 
 fell on them all : (what did they do?) they 
 were astonished — and he commanded them 
 to be baptised,'^ 
 
 I 
 
400 Exercises and Effects of Religion, 
 
 Acts xiv. 10, Paul at Lystra, heals the 
 fiaan impotent of his feet, " and he leaped, 
 and walked — He did not seem to worship 
 at all. 
 
 Acts XV. 31, When the Apostles car- 
 ried the Epistle to Antioch, and it was read, 
 *^ they rejoiced for the consolation.'- 
 
 Acts xvi. 25, Paul and Silas, at Phi- 
 lippi, were imprisoned, and at midnight 
 they sang praises unto God, and suddenly 
 there was an earthquake, and the doors 
 opened, and every one's hands were loosed ; 
 (what a surprising power !) and the keeper 
 fearing, would have killed himself : (no reli- 
 gion at this time !) but Paul cried, do thyself 
 no harm : and he sprang in, (affected by the 
 kindness of the words,) and came trembling, 
 (because afraid still,) and fell^own before 
 Paul and Silas, (supposing the power only 
 of them, and making them homage,) and 
 said, Sirs, what must I do t o he saved sup- 
 posing destruction must await them all under 
 such mighty " shakings of the foundation of 
 the prison." But they, willing to avail them- 
 selves of so suitable an occasion to preach 
 repentance, as the best means of salvation, 
 take up his own word, and say, believe 
 
Exercises and Effec ts of Religi on, 101 
 
 on the Lord Jesus Christj and thou shalt be 
 suved,'^ and thy house. His belief could 
 not save his household, but they meant that 
 belief unto salv ation, should be equally pos- 
 sible for all of them. As yet, durin g all thi s 
 time , he knew not the way of christian sal- 
 vation : and if he did not, as I shall presently 
 shew, how ill judged has been the zeal of 
 those, who have pressed all this prison 
 scene, as a case of absolute conviction, for 
 s in/ He meant by all he did, present, tem- 
 poral deliverance : but they meant to urge 
 him to a concern for his soul : therefore, 
 after all this, (verse 3^,) they spake unto him 
 the word of the Lord, and to all that Were 
 in the house, and then only it follows, 
 (verse 33d,) that they were all baptised, and 
 then shewed kindness to Paul and Silas, by 
 Washing their stripes.^^ 
 
 Acts xix. 6, Paul at Ephesns— and 
 when Paul laid his hands on the Disciples 
 there, the Holy Ghost came on them, and 
 they spake with tongues. 
 
 Acts XX. 37? And they all wept sore, 
 and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him ; 
 sorrowing most, that they should see bis 
 
102 Exercises and Effects of Religion, 
 
 face no more : how rational and affectionate 
 their manner ! 
 
 Acts xxviii. 15, Paul approaching Rome, 
 sees the hrethren coming to meet him, and 
 was glad : how did he act ? He thanked God 
 and took courage. 
 
 Acts xxviii. S3, When Paul expound- 
 ed in Rome, from morning till night, " per- 
 suading them," some believed and some not. 
 
 Having now gone through the preceding 
 examinations of the effect of preaching, and 
 of the Holy Spirit, on the hearts of the first 
 christians and converts, we have been ena- 
 bled to judge, in what manner their bodies 
 were ordinarily affected ; and we are com- 
 pelled now to concede, that they did not 
 jump, nor scream, nor shout, nor in any 
 thing act unseemly : but acted with constant 
 decorum, gravity and stability.^ 
 
 * It occurs to me, in this place, that some one 
 will say. If they have not told us of their leaping, 
 they were however, allowed to do so by Christ him- 
 self in his sermon on the Mount. See Luke vi. 23 : 
 
 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy — but if 
 this be compared with the more full detail of this 
 same sermon, recorded by St. Mathew v. 12th, 
 it is there proved, (as we have before observed,) that 
 
Objections made to thtir Religion, 103 
 
 I come now to show the opinions which 
 were formed of thejjirst christians, by their 
 enemies ; and ichat things they laid to their 
 charge as offences. 
 
 In exhibiting the various charges, which 
 will fall under this head, I wish my reader 
 to be vigilant to disco^^er, if he can, amon§ 
 all the accusations which their enemies 
 could lay to them, any thing like scream^ 
 ing, shouting, or jumping. 
 
 Acts xvi. SO, Paul and Silas, before the 
 magistrates at Philippi, are accused, that 
 "they do exceedingly trouble our city — 
 (why?) they teach customs not lawful for us 
 to receive or observe/' 
 
 Acts xvii. 7> Paul and Silas, at Thes- 
 salonica, are accused of " turning the world 
 upside down, (figurative of course ;) and 
 doing contrary to Caesar ; saying, there is 
 another king, one Jesus.'' 
 
 leaping is not only a figurative, but a proverbial ex- 
 pression, in John and others ; and means, as St, 
 Mathew understood it, " exceeding glad,^^ — and by 
 no means, actual leaping : mark too, in this same 
 sermon, Christ also bids theni to pluck om^ the right /7 
 eye 5 to cut oj'the right hand, &c. l^-fu^ 
 
10i Objectio?is made to their Rdigiou, 
 
 * 
 
 Acts xvii. 18, Paul at Athens — the 
 philosophers said, AV^hat will this babbler 
 say ; — others, he is a setter forth of strange 
 doctrine : and they said, May we know wh?it 
 this new doctrine is, and what these 
 things mean P^' And then Paul standing on 
 Mars-hill, said, Ye men of Athens, &c. 
 ^peakingjiine versesj — read it and see how 
 rationally he defends his doctrine by the 
 rules of right reason — ^his acts he supposed 
 were not peculiar enough to merit any ex- 
 planation, though it was included in the 
 compass of their request, if any had ex- 
 isted. 
 
 Acts xviii. idf The Jews at Achaia, 
 said, this fellow persuadeth men contrary 
 to the law but Gallic acquits him, saying, 
 " O ! ye Jews, if it were a matter of wiongj 
 or of wicked lewdness, I might act, but 
 if it be a question of ivords and names, and 
 of your law, look ye to it.'' Here he shows 
 by bis verdict, plain enough, it was his doc- 
 trine, and not at all the actions of the dis- 
 ciples, which offended. 
 
 Acts xix. 37, The town clerk at 
 Ephesus, declaredythey were " neither rob- 
 bers of churches, nor blasphemers 5" insin- 
 
Ohjectiom made to their Religion, 105 
 
 uating thus : that there was nothing against 
 their njanners. 
 
 Acts xxi. 38, The Jews at Jerusalem — 
 " cried out, men of Israel help ! This is the 
 man, that teacheth all men every where 
 against the people, and the law, and this 
 place here, although they even invented 
 liesy they did not conceive any charge 
 against their manners . 
 
 Acts xxiv. 19, Paul excusing himself 
 before Felix — says, " I was found neither 
 with multitude nor tumult^ and Jet these say 
 if they have found any evil dmn^ in me.'^ ! 
 Thus he knew his actions were unblamable, 
 even in their estimation. 
 
 Acts XXV. 26, Festus writeth respect- 
 ing Paul — saying, 1 have no certain thing 
 to write respecting him ; and it seemeth un- 
 reasonable to send a prisoner, and not to 
 signify his crimes.'^ 
 
 Acts xxvi. I think myself liappy, says 
 Paul, that 1 shall answer before theeAgrippa, 
 touching alLthe things whereof I am accus- 
 ed of the Jews.'' He then proceeds to a 
 long defence, (of S2 verses.) but he makes 
 no reference to any extravagant bodily ex- 
 ercises. Indeed, the lawyer who was em- 
 
106 Tilt decorum and restraints of Religion. 
 
 ployed to accuse, and whose whole speech 
 to the judges is preserved, accuses the 
 christians of none of these things. We infer 
 then, that they were absolutely unknown in 
 that day. 
 
 I proceed now, finally, to ^^ive evidence 
 of the manners and habits of the first chris- 
 tians, and of their strict observance of rules 
 of decency and order — even to imposing res- 
 traints upon the operations of the spirit. 
 
 ^JU 1 Cor. 9. 10, '^Take heed, least 
 by any means this liberty of yours become a 
 stumbling block to them that are weak.^' (Oh, 
 how considerate then for the feelings and 
 views of others!) "But when ye sin so 
 against the brethren, and wound their weak 
 conscience, ye sin against Christ." — Do they 
 indeed! And verse 13th adds: ^^where- 
 fore, if meat make my brother to offend, 
 (offended,) I will eat no ilesh while the 
 world standeth.'^ What feeling, considera* 
 tion, and gentle forbearance for our instruc- 
 tion and example !— Observe too, how it 
 implies that christians may restrain their 
 acts. 
 
<^ , - ^—f'_-7 / 
 
The decorum and restraints of Religion. 107 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 13, Judge in yourselves, Is it 
 comely, that a woman pray unto God unco- 
 vered P Also, it is a shame for a woman to be 
 shaven, but (verse i^th says,) if she has long 
 hair it is her glory." — A man indeed ought 
 not to cover his head : — and again : (verse 
 I'kh,) Doth not even nature itself teach 
 you, that if a man have long hair, it is a 
 shame unto him Mark here, how earnestly 
 Paul pleads for the prescribed forms and 
 usages of society : — he endeavours to shame 
 them into comeliness, and such taste of per- 
 sonal decoration, as nature and cusk)m pre- ^ 
 scribes. I^^ i ondoiiy-ifc ^^^aiasl^could^ave en- y tfu^L^ 
 dured complacently, the jumping and scream- 
 ing of some of our " unstill sisters 
 
 1 Cor. xiv. 34, "Let your women 
 keep silence in the churches, for it is not 
 j^ermitted unto them to speak, but they are 
 commanded to be under obedience, as also 
 saith the law." How unlike is this to the jt^i^J^f^c^ 
 liberty o^ ^our sisters ! — ^ 
 
 But Paul in the 14rth chap. 19th verse, is 
 very remarkable — "In the church I had 
 rather speak five words, with my under- 
 standing, that by my voice I might teach 
 others also , than 10,000 words in an un- 
 
 V — . ^ • ■ . 
 
108 The decorum and restraints of Religion* 
 
 known, (i. e. an unintelligible) tongue." Oh ! 
 how he aims in all things to edify. He would 
 rather give an intelligible account of his 
 state of soul, that others may learn, than to 
 scream or shout, in an unknown manner or 
 sound ! For he says^verse 7th,) '^except they 
 give a distinction in the sounds, how shall 
 it be known what it is ?" So likewise, (9th 
 verse,) " except ye utter by the tongue, words 
 easy to be understood, how shall it be 
 known what is spoken ? ye shall speak into 
 the air (verse ISth,) Let the zealous of 
 spiritual gifts, seek to e^ccel to the edifying 
 the chiifch.'^ Thus this erfi/y2i2j;we observe, 
 is the clyihax of his whole theme of instruc- 
 tion. But who is edified either by the jump- 
 ing, or screaming, or shouting, or stepping 
 of tunes ! Nay, those kind of people, have 
 been challenged in some cases to give some 
 rational account of their emotions in public ; 
 but they have been too dilStlent ov ashamed^ 
 although they thought nothing of .either of 
 the others before the congregation. Can 
 such persons think themselves in a right 
 spirit, who can resist such weighty com- 
 mands, as these which St. Paul enjoins ! 
 Who hath made any of us wiser than the 
 
The decorum and restraints of MeligioiL 109 
 
 Apostles ? Finally, says the same apostle, 
 (verse idt\\^ "J will pray mth the Spirit, 
 and 1 will pray with the understanding 
 also : I will sing too, with the Spirit, and 
 with the understanding also that is, 
 when he has the Spirit in him : he will also, 
 whil&Jie acts with it, make it to be under- 
 stood by, or accompanied with the under- 
 standing of others also : this is his obvious 
 meaning. For, he adds, " unless these 
 things be, those that are unbelieving will 
 say, ye are mad (how manifestly he cares 
 for the opinion of unbelievers, but some of 
 us make a merit of their derisions :) But 
 if otherwise, (says Paul,) " he is convinced 
 of all ; and will report that God is in you of 
 a truth/^ As if Paul had said, so rule your 
 spiritual exercises^ and subdue them, that 
 they may always stand explained to their 
 understandings by your words ; that so you 
 may convince the unbeliever, and cause him 
 to " report,^\ that you are not mad, but God 
 is in you : " For God, he adds, is not the 
 author of confusion, but of peace ; as in all 
 the churches of the saints, (verse 33d,) Let 
 all things, therefore, be done unto edifying 
 {verse S7th,) Yea, (still increasing in bis 
 
 ' * ' - T 
 
 : ' Ja 
 
 K t 
 
110 Tiie decorum and restraints of Religion, 
 
 energy of command,) let all thin,g;s (omit 
 notliing, however trivial^) be done decently, 
 and in order/' Is it possible, that any well 
 wisher to Zion, of sober and stable princi- 
 ples of Christianity, can, after reading such 
 wise and solemn admonitions, countenance 
 ^(iwji-^ the loose disorder, and confusion of of 
 our meetings ? — Are we not, indeed, over- 
 leaping the bounds of apostolic wisdom ; and 
 can we hope to escape the illusions of enthu- 
 siasm ? — May the Lord, indeed, touch the 
 hearts of his servants, to purify his temple 1 ''^ 
 I Tim. chapter iii. — A minister " must 
 be 'blameless — sober, of good behaviour — 
 one that ruleth well ; and he must 
 have a good report of those which are 
 without, (must he indeed !) least he fall into 
 rejproach.^^ Here we perceive we are so 
 to live, as to be without blame or reproach^ 
 even from the world : nay, more ; we must 
 have a good report from them ; because of 
 our good behaviour, even in their estimation. 
 Nor, can this position be at all gainsayed, 
 by the text : " rejoice, and be exceeding 
 glad, when they say all manner of evil 
 against you, falsely, (mind you) for my name 
 sake : — for great is your reward, &c." It is 
 
4 
 
 The decorum and restraints of Religion, 111 
 
 not that you should be glad of their evil 
 speaking, but of the reward. See Mathew 
 
 V. 11. ^ 
 
 1 Tim. chap. iv. ^^Let no man despise - 
 thy youth; (that is, by any indiscretion) but^¥ 
 be thou an example : (may he and Paul, ^f^jT 
 indeed be ours also !) study ioj^lww thyself ' 
 approved unto God — a workman (in his 
 ministry) that needeth not to be ashamed^ ^ ^\ 
 
 Paul to Titus chap. ii. Says, " teacb 
 aged men to be sohei\ grave, temperate : '4 ^ 
 the aged women, that they behave according^ a- 
 to godliness: (so, godliness, he admits, has^^ ^ 
 its rules and restraints'*:)— Young women, ^ 
 that they be sober, keepers at home :— young 
 men, that they be sober minded — shewing y 
 in all thingSy (even in religious exercises,) ' 
 gravity, and sound speech, (i. e. intelligent 
 speech) that cannot be condemned : (what! 
 care for the condemnation of the w^orld ! 
 yes ;) that he that is of the contrary part, 
 (i. e. the opposition) may he ashamed: (and 
 not you) having no evil thing (even) to say 
 of you !!Lfor he adds, " w e must live so- 
 berly, righteously and godly. Finally, let 1 
 no man despise thee ;'L.no, not evil men ^ 
 themselves. May we not add, if a maa ^ 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
112 Tkt di^corum and restraints of Religion. 
 
 will not believe, nor receive these., words, 
 from the stewards of the mysteries of 
 God/^ neither would they listen to any 
 counsel but their own^ though one arose 
 from the dead ! Even now, methinks, an ill 
 informed caviller is ready to ask, as I have 
 before heard it, Are we not " to become as 
 the filth and offscouring of the earth No ! 
 read 1 Corinthians, 4th chapter, and the 
 ^.ontext ; and there you will see, that Paul 
 himself uses the words ; and uses them 
 against his own followers ; who were for ex- 
 alting their wisdom against his, (as some of 
 us do now,) and regarding him as naught, 
 nay, as filth ^ 
 
 I promised, finally, to show that christians 
 can, by scripture command, restrain the 
 Spirit, according to judgment and reason ; 
 being always ruled by the seasonableness, 
 Uand fitness of things — thus : 1 Cor. xv. 
 S6, 28, When ye come together, and 
 every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doc- 
 trine, hath a revelation^ &c. if there be no 
 interpreter, (i. e. no chance of explaining 
 your exercises,) let him keep silence in the 
 church : — (this th«n is possible, Paul,) and 
 let him speak to himself^ and to God.'^ 
 yL Sij^ cuC^ n^jisor is—/£:^ '^ajV'*^^^*^ 
 
The, decorum and restraints of Religion, ±±S> 
 Why so ? that all things may be done unto 
 
 edifying.^' The reason is obvious : the sole 
 cause of our speaking in public, of God's 
 operations towards us, at all, must be for 
 the benefit of others; for God knows al- 
 ready — therefore we may muse his praise,'^ 
 acceptably to him. The Apostle (verse 30th 
 and 31st) continues : If any thing be re- 
 vealed to another that sitteth by, let the first 
 hold liis peace : For we may all prophecy^ 
 (i. e. speak, or pray,) one by one ; that all 
 may learn, and all may be comforted and 
 furthermore ; the spirits of the prophets,, 
 (the speakers) are subject to the prophets." 
 Which inculcates this lesson : that the spirit 
 is never sent with such power, in ordinary 
 religious exercises, but what it may be sub- 
 jected to our wjUs, and governed, at our 
 discretion ; or, how otherwise should we be 
 made accountable creatures for all aur ac- 
 tions ! ^ 
 
 But it is very possible, after all that has been 4j ^ ^ 
 said, (for I am now drawing to a close,) that •'4, I \% 
 some few, notwithstanding the evidences of ^ 1^"* ^ 
 right religion, adduced in the foregoing re- 
 view, will continue to hug their former con- 
 ceits and practices 5 thus fulfilling the seutL 
 
114 The decorum and restraints of Religion, 
 
 ment of Charles Wesley's biographer^ that 
 *^ those who most want these salutary res- 
 traints, are the least disposed to receive 
 them acting too^ not unlike the lines in 
 Hudibras, " the raan convinced against his 
 will, enjoys his old opinion still.'' In the 
 language of Locke, they will he sure, be- 
 cause they are sure ; and their persuasions 
 must be right, because they are strong in 
 them and yet, they cannot be more sure 
 than the pious Baron Swedenbourg was, of 
 actually seeing and conversing with angels ! 
 I desire, however, to continue kindly dispos- 
 ed towards such, for " their persuasions may 
 be as strong in error, as in truth." As I 
 would fain " restore such in meekness," so 
 I would wish in all gentleness, to give them 
 every fair means of establishing their views ; 
 and I hope the most strenuous of them, will 
 grant that I am sufficiently charitable, if I 
 hold myself open to their conviction) on this 
 single principle of future conduct — ^to wit: 
 those who are in any way singular, should 
 give to all their extra acts, both for their 
 own justification, and for our conviction and 
 edification, {in a manner as public as their 
 actions — and at, and as near the time of thenj. 
 
The decoru m and r»strainfs of Religion. 115 
 
 as possible,) a full, frankj^eonfessionay decla- 
 ration, of the alledged irresistible manner, 
 in which they have been actuated, or ope* 
 rated upon.^ If from God, they may sup- 
 pose he will inforce his truth with such 
 energy, or unction, as sometimes to subdue 
 our prejudices ; and besides, it will serve to 
 explain to, and convince the irreligious too. 
 They who are actually filled of the right 
 spirit, may expect to speak with some good 
 degree of intelligence and understanding ; 
 and they who have none of this, will stand 
 exposed, as either mistaken, or as hypocri- 
 tical. By this means, God's own works 
 may be glorified. For myself, I wish to 
 stand open to conviction : and I am willing 
 to draw my belief, from what I can see and 
 understand, as done before my eyes, or felt, 
 or perceived in myself. I wish, in all pur- 
 suits after ftuth, to let all my pre- conceived 
 
 * In several instances of remarkable conduct in 
 conversion, the parties sent to Mr. Wesley, written 
 accounts, to be read by him in public. St. John, says, 
 
 he that doeth truth cometh to the light ; that his 
 deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought 
 in God." 
 
116 The decorum and restraints of Religim, 
 
 opinioHs, bang about me, loose as a garment^ 
 which I may drop, 'so that 1 may be ready to 
 believe any new fucif which 1 bad not before 
 conceived of ; provided, the evidence be 
 sufficient. I have already witnessed some 
 aiFectious of bodies, of well disposed pious 
 persons, at which I have been surprised, 
 and which I do not understand by any 
 scripture analogy. If persons of competent 
 judgment, enlightened understanding, and 
 deep piety, shall therefore, in this way, dis- 
 play any extra actions and emotions, and 
 declare the power jpreternatural, we shall 
 eventually, by the number and circumstances 
 of such cases, possess a body of evidence, by 
 which we may at last test their real char- 
 acter. Whether all the emotions which re- 
 ligion may excite, have been told in the new 
 Testament, I will rather leave to profes- 
 sional divines to settle. They have, in- 
 deed, already generally assured us, that 
 ^' the scriptures are our only and sufficient 
 rule, both of faith and practice as our 
 'discipline" also confirms. I have search- 
 ed the scriptures, with a view to discern, 
 whether we had any 'promises, of greater 
 effects and outward manifestations of the 
 
The decorum and restraints of Religion, 117 
 
 spirit, than was experienced under the mi- 
 nistry of the apostles, — and 1 have not 
 been so successful as to perceive any allu- 
 sion to them. But I will not be so arrogant, 
 however I may think, as to take upon my- 
 self to pledge my readers, that there is no 
 such thing. In the mysteries of godli- 
 ness/^ there may be many heights and 
 depths, yet hidden from the wise and 
 prudent : — I therefore am disposed to hear 
 and learn, — and let my reader aim at the 
 same thing. In the mean time, those who 
 say they have neWf or unexpected bodily 
 affections, or emotions, if they have a con- 
 sistent regard for the honour of their God, 
 and the comfort and consolation of their 
 brethren, must take more edifying means of 
 inculcating their experiences, than they have 
 hitherto done ; or they must continue to dis- 
 play themselves as unprofitably ; " as him 
 who beateth the air.'' If we know our- 
 selves, we have no will to conceal or hinder 
 any operation, which God promotes or re- 
 quires. ^' The reproach of Christ, (as Mr. 
 Wesley observes,) we are willing to bear, 
 but not the reproach of enthusiasm, if we 
 can help it." ^ 
 
 I," 
 
118 The dtcorum and restraints of Religion. 
 
 Having in the coromencemeut of this little 
 work, confessed my conviction of my lia- 
 bility to error, from which even the best in- 
 formed are not exempt, — 1 shall not be sur- 
 prised, if I have mistaken somethings, and 
 been quite ill-informed in others. But I 
 indulge a hope, that I shall have effected so 
 much real good, as to make the liberal 
 minded forgive the imperfections. I shall 
 certainly have touched the cases and causes 
 of some real acts of enthusiasm and extra- 
 vagance. I shall have hit some blots 
 and not have been useless in setting several 
 upon the inquiry, and analysis of their emo- 
 tions. If some who have been misled, 
 should be thereby enabled to discern them- 
 selves, the writer will have the pleasure to 
 reflect, that his labour will not have b^en 
 alto2;ether in vain. 
 
 I have now, I presume, succeeded in the 
 labours I had proposed to myself f and I 
 trust the candid, well-informed christian 
 reader who knows his bible, and is willing 
 to read it, free from the shackles of pre-con- 
 ceived opinions and prejudice, will per- 
 ceive, that I have honestly endeavoured to 
 expose the fair truth,^ud i^o far as was con- 
 
The decorum, and restraints of Religion. 119 
 
 sisteiit with due earnestness j I have avoid- 
 ed severity in what I have so written. If 
 J, then, a plain, unpretending, unofficial 
 member of the society, have thrown any new 
 light upon these hitherto concealed matters, 
 what is it, hut so much reproof to those 
 whose business it was " to guard the flock, 
 as those who must give an account,'^ in that 
 they have left their obligations and duties, 
 to be executed by feebler hands: — by those 
 too, who should rather sit to be instructed, 
 than to teach ! I now admonish such, that if 
 they will not regard these things betimes, 
 and betake themselves to more enlightened 
 policy, they will yet, I much fear, cause a 
 mighty schism . The sober minded, stable 
 christian, will feel pressed to " come ouf^ 
 from among the unstable and irregular; 
 and will then of necessity, attach them- 
 selves to such preachers, as have the fear- 
 less fidelity, to repress enthusiasm, and to 
 sustain the true religion. This is not 
 spoken as of threat, but as presumption, of 
 a future probable fact. Such a people as 
 the Methodists might be, is not now in 
 
 * See Dr. Clarke, in the Appendix. 
 
120 The decorum and restraints of Religion, 
 
 Christendom : — the simplicity of their wor- 
 ship ; their free salvation ; their earnest 
 prayers and diligence of labour ; and their 
 actual knowledge of^ and firm adherence to 
 the great truth — That there is power ^ and 
 sensible witness^ in the spiritual visitations 
 of the Holy Spirit ; gives them the foremost 
 chance of surpassing all other present chris- 
 tians, both in increase of multitudes^ and 
 holiness of members. Methodism^ with 
 all thy faults, I love thee still 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Both John and Charles Wesley, were manifestly 
 opposed to some religious affections, in their 
 time, viz: 
 
 SENTIMENTS OF JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 <• Fondling words in devotion, says he, are 
 an odious, and indecent familiarity with our 
 Maker. The word dear, [how often do we hear 
 this !] he says, he never uses, either in prose or 
 verse ; or in preaching or praying. He says, 
 there is no scripture which justifies it.'*"^ This 
 improper familiarity with God, is naturally pro- 
 ductive of very evil faults. But some may say, 
 refraining from these warm expressions checks 
 the fervour of devotion. It is very possible it 
 may ! such fervour as has passed for devotion ! 
 It may prevent loud shouting, horrid, unnatural 
 screaming, repeating the same words twenty or 
 
 • Remember, Christ says, *• hmmSu^ye shall ask me nothing ; 
 but whatsoever ye shall ask the Father^ in my name, shall be gi^'er. 
 you." 
 
122 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 thirty times, jumping two or three feet high, 
 throwing about the arms or legs, both, of men 
 anil women, in a manner shocking, not only to 
 religion, but to common decency ! But it will 
 never check, mucli less prevent, true scriptural 
 devotion. It will rather enliven the prayer, 
 that is properly addressed. Some of the hymns 
 of Dr. Watts, says he, dedicated to divine 
 love, are too amorous ; and fitter to be addressed 
 by a lover to his fellow mortal, than by a sinner 
 to the most high God." 
 
 \_See Wesley's Sermon, on knoruing Christ after the Jiesh. 
 
 In 3rd vol. of Wesley's Journal, speaking 
 of the Welsh, he says, " Some give .out a verse, 
 which they sing over and over again, with 
 all their might, thirty or forty times : mean 
 while, some are violently agitated, and they 
 leap up and down in all manner of postures, 
 frequently for hours." He adds, " I think 
 there needs no great penetration to understand 
 this. They are honest, upright men, who really 
 feel the love of God in their hearts : but they 
 have little experience, either of the ways of 
 God, or the devices of Satan. So he serves 
 himself of their^^simplicity, in order to wear 
 them out, and to Urin^a discredit on the work 
 of God." 
 
 frW ^i'iijK^ - ^JuAtx^ m~9miA^ "f^A/T^ tffC^ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 12^ 
 
 Speaking of the case of the Rev, Mr. Bell, whom 
 he expelled, together with two other ministers^ — 
 Maxwell and Owen, for enthusiasm ; he says, 
 (read his Journal, 3rd vol.) I dislike that which 
 has the appearance of enthusiasm : Overvaluing 
 feelings, and inward impressions ; mistaking the 
 mere work o^ imagination^ for the voice of the 
 Spirit ; and undervaluing reason^ knowledge 
 and wisdom, I dislike your spending so much 
 time in several meetings, and keeping some 
 from other duties, [This is a very great evil : 
 some omit family prayers at night,— and hired 
 people, use time which is not their own— over- 
 looking seasonahle hours, as though God could 
 not again be found.] I dislike the singing, or 
 speaking, or praying, of several at once — too 
 hold and irreverent exprjgssions ; — using poor, 
 flat, bald, disjointed hymns ; — your using pos- 
 tures or gestures, highly indecent ; your scream- 
 ing^ even so as to make the words unintelli- 
 gible ; — the bitterly condemning any who op- 
 pose, pronouncing them hypocrites, or not jus- 
 tified."* 
 
 * Afterwards, JSell affected to turn prophet and Maxwell and 
 Owen fell away, and all died sinners ! The French prophets, though 
 once so numerous, where are tliey now ! all gone. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 « I am willing, (says John Wesley,) to bear 
 the reproach of Christ; but not the reproach of 
 tinthusiasm, if I can help it/' 
 
 John Wesley, in his 3th vol. of Journal, speak- 
 ing of the people near Chapel-in-Ie-Frith, near 
 Macclesfield, says, ^< many have been awaken- 
 ed, justified, and soon after perfected in love : 
 but even while full of love, Satan strives to push 
 many of them to extravagance. This appears 
 in several instances : first, frequently three or 
 four, yea, ten or twelve pray aloud all together. 
 2nd, Some of them, perhaps many, scream all 
 !C^2t!ier, as loud as they possibly can. Srd, Se- 
 veral drop down as dead, and are as stiff a» a 
 corpse ; but in a while, they start up, and cry 
 glory / glory ! perhaps twenty times together." 
 
 Just so, he adds, do ti^ French prophets : and 
 very lately, iha jumpers in Wales j bringing the 
 real work into contempt." 
 
 But let no enemy to the power and effect of 
 genuine religion, presume to assert from any 
 thing above said, that Mr. Wesley was un- 
 friendly to occasional, strong, outward manifes- 
 tations of convictions, and conversions: his 
 Journals give many accounts of unusual outpour- 
 ings of the Spirit, and of his pleasure in them. 
 Some suddenly fell down, crying for mercy i and 
 
1i 
 
 X 
 
 others quickly rejoiced, giving thanks. Such 
 poweVf we pray, may continue with us. But ^ «j 
 
 these, by their actions and wordSf evinced that s?vll '^ 
 
 the po7t?er was j?re/enifl/7tra/; and hence, others 
 were convinced. If some other societies of good ^"^^^ 
 men, witness not these things, may it not be, 
 because they are less disposed to receive the jf^ 
 Spirit in much power ? But few have the grace v{? i 
 
 to bear our reproach. 
 
 Wesley sought a medium^ between still cir- 
 cumspeetion, and unrestrained and thoughtless 
 jestures, and vociferations. Let us follow his ^ ^ 
 
 wisdom, and his prudence. As rational and j ( 
 
 converted creatures, we are never bereft of 
 reason, or judgment ; and we are always bound | 
 to use them ; remembering always, that Satan II » 
 
 himself will always pitsh us to act unseemly. V^l^ 
 Let us aim that all be done to edification ! ^ 
 
 It is most carefully to be marked too, that i 
 all of Mr. Wesley's objections to excessive ex- «^ \ 
 
 ercises, is made exclusively a^^imsi professed g( ^^ ;^ 
 
 christians : — For convicted sinners, he offered ; 3 | ' 
 
 no rules. Their convictions he expected were \^ 
 irresistible and reluctant: and as to their 
 grosser emotions, he often saw and knew that 
 they were excessive, even to agonies of body '^^ '^'^ 
 
 ami mind, by the actual resistance of Satam ^ 
 
 iAjmfXA^tOf J!«f^i^i^ >t/«^e^ ^Cs^T^W ^^'^^^ 4^0^^^^ 
 
 Cir^i^ «-j^<L«yb^ e^'vi-v't-oilX-yA*^^ 
 
125 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Such expased actions from men who were just 
 before avowed enemies, and scoffers, want no 
 apology nor interpretation. Nor is it likely 
 that men so remarkably engaged, would be 
 quieted till tliey found tlie Comforter* Mr. 
 Wesley supposed some of these very strong 
 cases ^< of outward signs and wonders, were 
 suffered, or permitted to the converts, because 
 of the hardness of our hearts; unready to re- 
 ceive any thing, unless we see it with our eyes, 
 and hear it with our ears." For he remarked, 
 that after these things had been suffered, in the 
 beginningof a work, the work of conviction was 
 much more calm and unal arming. The writer 
 of the present work, has his sentiments in 
 entire unison with Mr. Wesley's. 
 
 Sentiments of Charles Wesley. 
 
 In Charles Wesley's Life, page 158, speaking ot 
 a good revival at New Castle, hesays, "many peo- 
 ple had been greatly agitated during the preach- 
 ing : falling into convulsive motions, with strong 
 cries : — many no doubt w ere in the deepest dis- 
 tress ; but he perceived that these natural affec- 
 tions were soon imitated to attract notice. Some 
 actually did this. Qiie fell into a fit, and^ieat 
 iTimlself heartily,— Y let him alone r.aiid instead 
 
^-^--i^T^ -•=«. -1 -V... »^^. 
 
 v<c 
 
APrENDlX. 
 
 127 
 
 of singing over him, as had often been done, 
 we left him to recover. A girl, as she began 
 her cry, I ordered carried out ; [John Wesley 
 ordered several carried to a distance,] and al- 
 though her convulsions, had taken away the use 
 of her limbs, she soon found the use of them, 
 when left without the door, and walked off! 
 The first night I preached here, half my 
 words were lost, by the outcry of several unstill 
 sisters, who got as near me as they could, and 
 tried who could cry loudest: but they became 
 quite still, when I gave out, that whosoever be- 
 gan above my voice, should be carried, without 
 any man's hurting or judging them, to the far 
 end of the house. Yet the Lord was with us, 
 mightily convincing of sin and of righteousness 
 and he adds, since I preached the gospel, it 
 never had greater success than here at New 
 Castle." Yet says he, we have no more fits 
 among us, and I liave done nothing to hinder 
 them, only declared, that I do not think the 
 better of any one for crying ontl''^ 
 
 Mr. Wesley (says his biographer,) /re- 
 (/uenfii/ repeated these remarks: but experience 
 had frequently shewn, tliat they who most 
 want these salutary restraints, are the least dis- 
 posed to receive them : not being willing to 
 part with their imaginary comforts^ by being 
 undeceived.^* 
 
 fli--/* '^^■'^ " ' 
 
128 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sentiments op Rev. John Fxetchee, 
 
 ^35 expressed in his letter of 22tZ, JVov, 1762, 
 io Charles JVesley. 
 
 I have heard the melaneholy news, of many 
 of our brethren over-shooting sober and steady 
 Christianity in London. 0 ! that I could stand 
 in the gap, and by sacrificing myself, shut this 
 immense abyss of enthusiasm. 
 
 The corruption of the best things, is always 
 the worst of corruptions. Going into an extreme 
 of this nature, or only winking at it, will give 
 an eternal sanction to the vile aspersions, cast 
 on all sides, on the purest doctrines of Christi- 
 anity ; and w^e shall sadly overthrow, over- 
 throw in the worst manner, what we have en- 
 deavoured to build for many years. 
 
 Allowing, that but half of the report is true,, 
 the rest shews, that spiritual pride, presump- 
 tion, arrogance, stubbornness, party-spirit, un- 
 charitableness, prophetic mistakes, — in short, 
 every sinew of enthusiasm, is now at work in 
 many of that body. 
 
 Insist, first in love — afterwards with autho- 
 rity, tbat they either stand to the soler rule of 
 Christianity, or depart from its. 
 
 Fear not; the Lord will take care of his 
 ark y and though hundreds of Vxxahs should 
 
Ua.lc-<^1-^ - f'^-^ rf^^ ^ pf^- 
 
^a- ^y>-<^ _,^ <^ Z.-*^ - ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 **^^wrx^ cyy^'^^c/i'-ry^-'l, /^Tf A-4/7yar> f-^^t^^ ^^'"'^^ ^^^^ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 129 
 
 fall ofl; most of them would return with Noah's 
 
 Mr. Fletcher had a young woman in his 
 cliurcb, of extravagant deportment ; of whom 
 he remarks : 
 
 " It seems to me, as if that old murderer, 
 proposed to ruin the success of my ministry at 
 Madely, by means of Miss A — . She emaciates 
 her body by fastings— falls into convulsions in 
 my church and assemblies — and is perpetually 
 tempted to suicide. What to do, I do not know ; 
 for those who are so tempted, pay as little re- 
 gard to reason, as the miserable people in Bed- 
 lam. Prayer and fastings are the only re- 
 sources."* )C 
 
 Sentiments of Rev. J. Edwards. 
 
 The following, is selected from John Wesley's 
 edition of <^ Edwards on Religious Affections 
 Mr. Edwards was largely concerned, in a great 
 revival of religion in New England ; and was 
 moved to write what he did, froiii what iie saw 
 and considered. 
 
 * This last was actually done every Tuesday, till she recovered 
 S'ie Fistcher^s Letter, 5th Jcmmry, 1763- 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 After saying, that " great part of true reli- 
 gion lies in the affections, and that this must 
 necessarily affect the motion of the fluids, and 
 of the animal spirits,'^ lie says, there are 
 other spirits, who have influence on the minds 
 of men, besides the Holy Ghost. — There are 
 many false spirits, who with great suhtilty and 
 power, mimic the operations of the Spirit of 
 God ; and they therefore, affect things, in which 
 we had no contrivance. Some operations we 
 can clearly discern ; such as dreadful and horrid 
 suggestions : and so too, tlie power of Satan 
 may he as immediate in false comforts and joys ; 
 and orien is so in fact. 
 
 "It is no sure sign oitrue spiritual affections, 
 that they come with texts of scripture, re- 
 markahly suited to us ; — they may Be true : but 
 is it not true, that Satan can and does bring 
 texts to the mind, and misapply them to our de- 
 ceivings ? If he has power to bring any words 
 at all, to the mind, (and we admit that he does 
 bring evil words and thoughts,) he may equally 
 have power to bring words coiitained in the 
 Bible. If he was permitted to bring texts to 
 Christ himself, [why was Christ so tempted, but 
 to show lis, how we might expect to be tempt- 
 ed !] why may he not equally present them to 
 
^PENDIX. 
 
 131 
 
 men ? And if he may abuse one text, he may 
 many : and if he can present one comfortable and 
 promising text, so he may a thousand ; and so 
 remove rising doubts, conjirm false joy and con- 
 fidence, of poor deluded sinners." [Be not high 
 minded, but fear : — Take heed then how you 
 stand.] 
 
 ^< Christian jjraciice, then, is the most proper 
 evidence of gracious sincerity, and the chief of all 
 the marks of grace, is obedience and good works. 
 I had rather, says he, have the testimony of 
 my conscience, that I have such a saying of my 
 supreme Judge, on my side, — « He that hath my 
 commandments, and keepeth them, is he that 
 loveth me than any sign from my eocperi- 
 encesJ^ 
 
 Sentiments of Dr. A. Clarke, and his 
 
 ADVICE TO PREACHERS. 
 
 ^« You must not forget, that our congrega-> 
 tions are at present more intelligent, than they 
 formerly were. If this were not so, it would 
 be a proof that God had never sent us ! For 
 he has promised, (Jer. iii. 15.) <^ I will give 
 you pastors after my own heart, who will 
 feed them with knowledge and understand- 
 
132 
 
 append: 
 
 ing.'^ But you fear to loose your simpli-^ 
 city ! No. True knowledge (of God and his 
 works,) ever keeps its possessor humble ; be- 
 cause, it alone shows him how much is to he 
 known, and how little he has learned : — and I 
 scruple not to say, religion is discreditedf while 
 professed without knowledge. Sound know- 
 ledge, civilization, and genuine piety, have 
 marched with us hand and hand, all over this 
 nation. That which fermerly passed in the day- 
 break of our revival, will not pass now. The 
 people are more enlightened : they have grown 
 lip under our ministry, and they now require 
 stronger nourishment. — ^We are now to minister 
 to young men and fathers, and should be care- 
 Jul to keep before them, the same distance we 
 had at the beginning. To this end we must 
 cultivate our minds, and pray much to God. 
 
 To the utter confusion of all, who would 
 plead for the absurd and infamous maxim, that 
 * Ignorance is the mother of Devotion,' it 
 might be easily proved, that there is a very in- 
 timate connexion between vital godliness, and 
 a studious cultivation of a man's mind. 
 
 I am convinced, from an observation of thirty 
 years, (when he wrote) that the work of God, 
 among the Methodists, is at present, abundantly 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 more extensive, mort scriptural, more rational, 
 and at least as deep, as it has been from the be- 
 ginning. 
 
 Let your deportment (says Dr. Clarke in 
 another place) be serious, weighty, and solemn. 
 Take care of any thing awkard, or affected, 
 either in your gesture, phrase, or pronoun- 
 ciation ; and beware of clownishness. Say not, 
 these are unimportant matters. He that re- 
 gardeth not little things, shall fall by little and 
 little. Sing no hymns of your own composing, 
 unless he be a Jirst-rate poet ; such as Dr. 
 Watts, or Mr. Wesley, which may be the case 
 with one in every ten or twelve millions of men. 
 [Alas ! poor negro hymns ! Dr. Clarke could not 
 have borne them.] Say notliing to make your 
 congregation laugh, He that ministers, 
 
 says Cowper, the grand concerns of judgment 
 and of mercy, should beware of lightness in his 
 speech ; and should not stoop to catch a grin, 
 when lie should woo a soul /"] Be always 
 solemn ! never be boisterous. 
 
 Self confidence, will soon lead to forgetfulness 
 of Ood ; and then you will speak your own 
 words, and in your own spirit too. [Mark how 
 this is verified by Whitfield's confession of him- 
 self,] Avoid all quaint, and fantastic attitudes • 
 
134 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 they prejudice and grieve many. [Ah ! Clarke, 
 who cares for these things now a-days !] There 
 is all the reason in the world, why he should 
 avoid queer noddings, ridiculous stoopings, and 
 erections of the body ; shifting from side to side, 
 and every other air which tends to disgrace, and 
 render them contemptible, " Let no man des- 
 pise thee," says the apostle. Every sentence 
 you speak f should tend to edifcation : therefore, 
 speak not too low : this is a greater evil, than 
 screaming itself. [So screaming, in the opinion 
 of Dr. Clarke, is an evil/] 
 
 " It is much to be lamented, that the bene- 
 volent gospel, (i. e. good tidings) of the Son of 
 God, is represented by many, as a system of 
 austerity and terror: but no man can represent 
 it as such, who understands it. The place of 
 torment, is uncovered, in the sacred scripture, 
 that men maf see and escape it: and the 
 teacher of righteousness, should only describe 
 the devil, and his reign of misery, so as to cause 
 men to fall in love with Christ, and his heaven of 
 ^ glory. 
 
 " Many seem to have hell and destruction for 
 a constant text ; and all their sermons are 
 grounded on these subjects. All their dis- 
 courses should not be employed in this way. It 
 
APPENBIX. 
 
 135^ 
 
 is the doctrine of Jesus, — of Jesus dying for our 
 sins, and rising for our justification ; — Jesus, 
 shedding his love abroad in our hearts, by the 
 Holy Spirit; filling us with tlie meek, holy, 
 gentle mind, that was in himself, that ever can 
 he available to a sinner's conversion and com- 
 fort ! From long experience, [mark this ; of an 
 aged and most approved minister !] / can tes- 
 tify, that preaching the love of Christ, who 
 bought us, is of more avail to convict sinners, 
 comfort the distressed, and huild up believers in 
 their most holy faith, than all the fire of hell. 
 For, as it is possible to make void the law, 
 through a lawless method of preaching faith ; 
 so it is possible to make void the gospel) by 
 an unevangelized preaching of the law and its 
 terrors. Let the law be used as God uses it ; 
 let it enter, that the offence maij abound, and 
 that sin may appear exceeding sinful : then 
 remove the vail, and let the face of the gospel 
 shine forth on the wretched. Let the sinner's 
 astonished soul, contemplate the fullest proofs of 
 God's willingness to save men. Shew these 
 tilings to the vilest, and most profligate, and 
 then let them disbelieve the philanthropij of 
 God J if they can. In this way^ the testimonies 
 
 ' t 
 
 « 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Christ encourage; and thus, he that pro- 
 phesieth, speaketh unto men to comforV^ 
 
 CONVERSIONS OF EMINENT METHODISTS. 
 
 Having at the close of tlie second chapter, 
 said. f that the early leaders of Methodism were 
 given to us, both for example and precept 5 it 
 has been thought of some importance to show to 
 the readers of this work, in what manner they 
 were severally exercised in forsaking their 
 sins and coming to Christ. 
 
 It appears then, from the published Lives of 
 the two Wesieys, John Fletcher and Dr. Coke, 
 that all were at first equally satisfied with their 
 moral attainments, as a sufficient means of sal- 
 vation. Each were afterwards, equally sensi- 
 ble, that morality alone, however rigid, could 
 not save them. All were changed in heart, by 
 
 * It may be qaestioned, whether we should behold such strug- 
 gles, and anguish, in convic'ed persons, as we do, if more of 
 Clarke's manner prevailed? For as Wesley obsei'ves, " it is the ac- 
 cuser^ who with great power, tells them there is no hope — they are 
 iost forever, &c." But in this he would be foitedy if man " could 
 not disbelieve the philanthropy of God." 
 
 t Seepage yfj^^^^CLJu. J ^LM-Ju ^ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 137 
 
 equal moderate means: and none of their joys, 
 were very sensible in their change. All were 
 changed eventually, hy getting their minds well 
 instructed in the easy way of salvation, hy 
 faith ; for every one thatasketli receiveth, and 
 he that secketh findeth f When they in faith 
 received the ample promises of mercy, contain- 
 ed in the written word, they were changed, by 
 their praying and expecting with full trust and 
 confidence. Both Charles and John Wesley,, 
 received their first faith on the reading of 
 Luther on justification by faith : Charles 
 Wesley, «' became astonished, that he should 
 li ive ever considered it a new doctrine," Charles 
 Wesley and Fletcher, were converttd at their 
 bed sides, and alone ; — John Wesley, while 
 sitting in a church, hearing the reading of 
 Luther's preface to the Romans ; and Dr. 
 Coke, in his Pulpit, while preaching to others. 
 Their several first and chiefest emotions, were 
 as follow,— -to wit : Charles Wesley, found rest 
 and peace Jolin Wesley felt his heart 
 strangely warmed John Fletcher, was affect- 
 ed with uncommon cheerfulness;" and Coke, 
 perceived peace to his soul, and his fears 
 dispelled." All four, were primarily, and 
 weightily affected with distrust, in their ori- 
 M 2 
 
138 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ginal state of strict morality, by the positive 
 and artless assertions of plain experimental 
 christians. Both C harles Wesley and Fletcher, 
 say, ^' they felt no great emotion of joy and 
 Coke and John AVesley, thongh in tlie Church, 
 were so tranquil, tliat none but themselves were 
 then knowing to the change wrought in them. 
 
 Charges Wesiet, says, " he felt, after bis 
 conversion, no great emotion of mind, nor trans- 
 port of joy, in any of the means of grace ; but 
 be found himself calm and serene, and fully 
 satisfied of God's goodness to his soul. He was 
 thus early taught, he says, by experience, to 
 place little confidence in any of those sudden, 
 and transient impressions, which are often 
 made on the mind, in public or private acts of 
 devotion ; nor was he uneasy, because destitute 
 of rapturous joy : He was thankful for the more 
 calm and more permanent operations of divine 
 grace on the mind, by which his heart was kept 
 in peace, staid upon God, and watching unto 
 prayer.'' 
 
 John Wesley, says, " my soul continued in 
 peace ; but as to transports of joy, I was taught, 
 that God giveth, or withholdeth, as he sees fit. 
 I found all my strength lay, in keeping my eye 
 
APPEND IX. 
 
 139 
 
 fixed upon him ; and the Testament constantly 
 afforded me gr eat and precious promises." 
 
 FiETC HER, says, peace came at first, witli 
 so little observation, that, he was not aware of 
 his cliange of heart, hut by its effect in subdu- 
 ing his most besetting sin, — anger : and even 
 this escaped his remark, till he perceived by 
 two or three temptations, that he really with- 
 stood them like a new creature, I began there- 
 fore to think it was the Lord's doings. Yet 
 I prayed earnestly to be kept from false peace ; 
 but tlie more T prayed, the more I saw it was 
 real. Though without great emotions of joy, 
 I did not doubt, but that joy and a full assurance 
 of faith, would be imparted in due time. Read- 
 ing afterwards, some comfortable passages of 
 Scripture, my hope was greatly increased, my 
 joy full, and I thought myself conqueror over 
 sin, hell and affliction." 
 
 Seeing thus, the placid manner in which 
 j.hose examplary leaders were exercised, may 
 not an inference he drawn, that our prevalent 
 outcries would much seldomer occur, if peni- 
 tent men were more enlightened, to perceive 
 the very merciful dispensation of the Gospel : 
 That it proclaims full pardon, and most gladly 
 bestows super-eminent blessing, upon all who 
 
140 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 will welcome it, however vile Iiave been their 
 former lives. If repenting men, under such 
 gracious promises, yet write hitter things 
 against themselves, may it not he the work of 
 Satan, and ignorance combined ? For what can 
 prevent a burthened sinner, actually coming 
 cheerfully to take hold on such cheering pro 
 mises, hut distrustful unbelief, arising from an 
 ignorance of the promises, so peculiarly made 
 in his favour ? Is not belief, or faith, the very 
 opposite of this ignorance and unbelief! Are 
 we not to be saved by faith ! and does not 
 " faith come by hearing the word of God 
 (i. e. by knowing the Bible promises !) And can 
 it be the work of the Good Spirit, to convict 
 men contrary to his own promises ; which say, 
 
 he willeth not the death of the sinner; but 
 every one that calleth upon the name of the 
 Lord, shall be saved Can such a Spirit lead 
 men into dismay and w^oe, as some have taught^ 
 on purpose to make their deliverance more 
 manifest, and their joy more sensible ? 
 
 <* So much sorrow, says Fletcher, as will 
 cause us to forsake our sins, is quite sufficient ; 
 though it be ever so light, and of ever so short 
 a duratiout" 
 
 Mr. Fletcher, who attained the highest sal= 
 
j£^^ -^-f 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 vation, tells us, he was never much afraid of 
 hell and punishment;" — Nor did he mourn 
 greatly; as he often felt drovvsey, even in his 
 prayers. But at this insensibility, he was con- 
 cerned, and strove to feel more than he did ; until 
 he was advised by Mr. Wesley, not to build on 
 what pains he could feel, but to go straight to 
 Cljrist, with all his sins. Another friend too, 
 told him to hope, rather than to fear : wliere- 
 upon I felt, says he, resolved to hope : and so 
 going to bed with more hope and peace than 
 formerly, he awoke and prayed, and was Uest.^^ 
 
 THOUGHTS OX OUR OBLIGATIONS TO ACQUIRE 
 JUDGMENT AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 It is curious to ohserve the prejudice, which 
 has existed in some well disposed persons, 
 against those w ho cultivate their minds ; and so 
 become advocates for a religion, which is ac- 
 cording to knowledge. Those who are unin- 
 formed, and are willing to remain so, seem 
 to be strangely fearful, that the sense of 
 knowledge leads the mind from its simplicity. 
 They perceive such are not so credulous as 
 others ; and they infer, that what they are more 
 prompt to believe with less examination, is 
 better evidence of their faith :-«-and as they 
 
142 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ^ have heard of •< knowledge which puffeth up," 
 . and ^< vain philosophy which deceives," they 
 readily conclude, that those who can more 
 i curiously search into the foundations of their 
 belief, are too slow to believe," and are indeed 
 affected with a vain ])hiloso])hy. 
 
 But it is believed to be an important fact, 
 tested by experience, that true religion is not 
 hindered by the douhts of the superficial, provid- 
 ed those doubts arise from the enquiries which 
 divine wisdom has consecrated. They may be 
 delayed from a hasty embrace of crude notions, 
 by which they miglit have found temporary con- 
 solation ; — but they will get in exchange, for 
 delay and enquiry, stable and abiding evidences 
 of a well grounded conversion : — such as will 
 not be swept away by the first blast of adver- 
 sity, or temptation. 
 
 It is the glorious character of our Divine 
 Gospel, that it is no respecter of persons : and 
 therefore, as Methodists, we most gladly re- 
 ceive the least in character, and humblest in 
 knowledge, into the most unreserved brother- 
 hood. In this way, some are necessarily intro- 
 duced, who were before quite devoid of a just 
 knowledge of things, either in nature or grace. 
 Such, therefore, should expect humbly to re- 
 
ceive instruction, and not to be so vain, as to 
 conceit they know all that should be known, be- 
 cause they are elevated to new relations, and to 
 absolute equality in privileges : — our teachers 
 should teach such as they severally need. 
 
 Dr. Clarke has declared, that there is a 
 very intimate connexion between vital godli- 
 ness, and the studious cultivation of a man's 
 mind." He was himself, a most special proof 
 of his own doctrine. " True knowledge, he 
 adds, so far from destroying our simplicity, 
 makes us humble ; because, it teaches us how 
 much is to be known, and how little we have 
 learned and he adds, I scruple not to say, 
 that religion is discredited, while professed 
 without knowledge." Take too, a remarkable 
 evidence, from John Wesley's 4th vol. of his 
 Journal : — speaking of the people of Norwich, 
 who attended his preaching, whom he said, were 
 remarkably an uninformed people — he says, 
 « I find no people, so eminently unstable as 
 water, as these : — out of two hundred, which I 
 left last year, sixty nine are now gone ! Then he 
 adds, what a blessing isknowledge, when it is 
 sanctified ? what stability can be expected 
 without it ? For let their affections be ever so 
 lively, for the present, yet what hold can you 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 have upon a people, who neither know booktj, 
 nor men ; neither themselves, nor th6 Bible ; 
 neither natural, nor spiritual things." 
 
 How very earnest was St. Paul with Timothy, 
 even inspired as he was, that he should give 
 himself to reading ; that all might witness his 
 improvement. See too, how he charges him 
 in another place, to be careful to bring the 
 rolls (i. e. the books) with him — for St. Paul 
 himself hdiA much need of them ! The reason is 
 obvious : — God has given the light of reason, 
 whereby we are capable of acquiring, and 
 much increasing the stock of knowledge : " men 
 shall run to and fro, (i. e. enquire) and know- 
 ledge shall be increased and therefore, from 
 the gift already given, we perceive new dis- 
 coveries and improvements continue to be 
 made : — And as tliis gift is stifficienf, in con- 
 nexion with religion, in religious concerns, he 
 will not, most surely, allow indolent men to take 
 a shorter means, by requiring him to work 
 miracles, of conviction and evidence, where 
 they will not use the means of evidence already 
 bestowed. Divines, by patient enquiry, have 
 opened to our view, almost all we know of the 
 scripture, since the Apostles left us. Besides 
 this, we are here placed in " this Isthmus of a 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 145 
 
 middle state," in a probationary prtparation, 
 
 for <C^other and a better world," and our good ; * ^ »■ 
 
 Creator, intends us to qualify ourselves here, for 
 
 our higher enjoyments with him in glory : and in 
 
 proportion to our advancement and attainments 
 
 here, we are promised to exist in the life to 
 
 Gome. From such views of this subject, the 
 
 eminent Dr. Watts, in his interesting work on 
 
 the state of separate spirits," has argued, that 
 
 as our minds are imbued most here, so they 
 
 will continue in their identity there : and hence 
 
 he infers, that David, the sweet singer of 
 
 Israel, will be the chief musician, in the high 
 
 praises of the hosts above — Moses will still have 
 
 the closet manifestations of God — Newton, will 
 
 be a great spirit, in exploring the wonders and 
 
 the wisdom of creation, — and Locke will be most 
 
 delighted in searching the faculties of angel 
 
 minds. ^ 
 
 The inference which should be inculcated 
 from all the preceding is, that as christians, 
 we are bound by every obligation to improve 
 our mental faculties, so far as we are able, by 
 the reading, or hearing of as much itseful 
 knowledge as we can : and we should b^are, (XUr^v<^^ 
 that those who have least knowledge of the 
 philosophy of things, whether of matter or 
 
146 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 mind, are therefore most exposed to be misled, 
 by impressionSf which Satan may subtM^ in- 
 spire. Even Whitfield's wisdom and Know- 
 ledge, was not proof against the power of false 
 impressions ! God help lis, ever to be sober in- 
 quir^'^'after truth ! — preserve us from heated 
 imaginations ! It being certain, that where 
 most real religion is, there Satan will strive 
 most to subvert. Let tliose, therefore, who are 
 most at ease in Zion, possessing only the form, 
 be not vain-glorious, and censorious of us, if 
 they quite escape these things. Their security 
 may be death. 
 
 Mr. Wesley^s thoughts, on the visible and active 
 powers of Satan, and of other spiritual agents. 
 
 In his Journal of May 1768, speaking of the 
 extraordinary faculty of Mary Hobson, a good 
 woman of his society, in Sunderland, who saw 
 and conversed, as she supposed, witli tnany 
 spirits at different periods of time — he re- 
 marks: " the English in general, and most men 
 of learning in Europe, have given up all ac- 
 counts of witches and apparitions, as mere 
 fables ! I am sorry for this. It is a compliment. 
 
7' 
 
 7 
 
 «^-.<pC*-^^-~^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^ y/* 
 
APPENIJIX. 147 I 
 
 and eoncession from Bible believers to deists, 
 athiests, and materialists, that I will not grant : 
 forgiving up witchcraft, as they, know, is in j 
 effect giving up the Bible: — but if but one ac- 
 count of the intercourse of men with separate 
 spirits be admitted, (as they well know) their 
 whole opposition and unbelief must fall to the 
 ground?^ The belief of these tilings, has had 
 the suffrage of the wisest, and best of men, in 
 all ages and nations. What pretence have I to 
 deny well attested facts, because I cannot com- 
 prehend them 5 or have not myself seen them 
 
 Similar sentiments prevail in his sermon on 
 Markix. 38, viz. we saw one casting out deriZs 
 in thy name, &c.'' He remarks : ^< as the Holy 
 Spirit possesses the souls of good men, so the 
 evil spirit possesses the souls of evil men ; and 
 he is continually working in such : only the 
 manner wherein he possesses them now, differs 
 in general, from that of old time. Then he 
 frequently tormented the bodies also, and now , 
 but rarely : — and the reason of the difference is 
 plain. — Then he aimed to drive men to super- 
 stiiion, therefore he wrouglit as openly as he 
 could; — but us he aims to drive to infidelity : 
 wherefore, he now works as covertly and pri- 
 vately as he can; for the more secret he is, the /, 
 
 MtA^ ^•♦•ft.fv^s* i^fiU>^ <t-M^^ \ 
 
 *-> /y*— «r«*. -•-•o^ ^ y^T 
 
more he prevails. Wherefore in France, Eng- 
 land, Italy, &c. he is measureably hidden, but 
 in savage a^jd barbarous countries, (as to the 
 Laplanders, &c.) he appears as barefaced as he 
 can ; still to Jicc them in idolatry and super- 
 stition. But where men are enlightened, did 
 he appear to them and affright them, they might 
 fly to the God of Heaven ; — but with sinners 
 who dwell in Christendom, his whole art is en- 
 gaged, to make them deny and disbelieve his 
 very being, until he can have such in his own 
 place. With such, his business is to blind the 
 minds of the understanding, so that the light 
 of the glorious gospel might not shine upon 
 them." But who can behold the abominations 
 even now practised in Christendom, and not 
 perceive the absolute dominion of the evil one, 
 in the full possession and controul of men's 
 passions and wills. From such, the ministers of 
 Christ still cast out devils ;~and the struggles 
 and agonies of some such possessed men, show, 
 even now, how hardly "the strongman armed** 
 is expelled.'* 
 
 It may be remarked, on these premises of Mr* 
 Wesley, that well accredited writers have, in 
 several instances, given details of very extraor- 
 dinary, and seemingly preterns^tural appear- 
 
AiPPENDIX, 
 
 ances, among the northern nations of Europe, 
 even in modern times. Mr. Wesley has giver, 
 many extracts from such, in his early magazines. 
 The present Hindoos, Africans, and American 
 Indians, give very many evidences of their deal- 
 ings, as they suppose, with evil spirits ; — work- 
 ing magic, not unlike the Magicians of Egypt- 
 Glanville has left a large work, containing^ 
 collected facts, as he believed, of witchcraft. 
 The laws of England, shew, they were for- 
 merly the subject of serious public notoriety and 
 concern. Mr. Wesley gives some strange cir- 
 cumstances of evil agency, under his own ob- 
 servation, and in some instances, in his own 
 father's house. In our country, the case of the 
 Salem witches, who were publicly tried and 
 condemned, in thepresence of the governor, and 
 crouded assemblies in the courts, however af- 
 fected to be ridiculed now, is unanswerably 
 proved, to have been above any known power of 
 mere human agency. Let any one even read 
 the cases of trial, recorded in Marshall's Ame- 
 rican history, preceding the life of Washington, 
 and say whether fanaticism or enthusiasm alone, 
 can sufficiently account for the bodily exercises, 
 which then appeared in open court ; and the 
 strange perversions of vision, and of natural 
 
 N 
 
 -A--*'^/^' (fKjL^^^ijtx^ *^ ^^^/vM^ ~73sic<. 
 
150 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 affection, which then occurred. Mr. Marshall 
 has indeed, ascribed them to delusion ; but he 
 has done this in the fashion of the age, which 
 has found it easier to give them vague names, 
 than to account for involuntary^ extra-human 
 actions. Without pretending to declare /or, or 
 against opinions formerly so universally accre- 
 dited, I will only add my opinion, that modern 
 sceptics, have by no means analized the causes 
 of such visible effects. They in fact, in calling 
 them fanatic, and enthusiastic^ have only given 
 names to visible effects, leaving the causes, still 
 unexplored, as some do still, to some abso- 
 lutely religious exercises. This is not anali»« 
 ing, or developing, according to any just rules 
 of philosophy. We can even now remember, 
 that formerly, conjurors and fortune tellers, &c. 
 among us, did seem to succeed in several re- 
 markable instances, to point to the discovery of 
 lost property, — the healing of unaccountable 
 deseases, &c. If any of these black arts, had 
 formerly any super-human agency, we are glad 
 to admit, they seem now to have been banished 
 from among us : and if Mr. Wesley, and others, 
 have thought that evil spirits continue to exist 
 in places, only in proportion to their spiritual 
 darkness, it is not inralidated by our present 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 161 
 
 deliverance from such visible agents ; since we 
 all know, the light of the gospel, and the in- 
 crease of prayerSf have greatly increased all 
 over our land ! Mr. Wesley's sermons, above 
 cited, gives pretty plausible reasons, why Satan 
 should conceal his operations, where the gospel 
 is most preached. Besides, if all who hear the 
 gospel, could see the effiacts of Satan there told, 
 faith in the written word, would not have an 
 object, but all would be sight and demonstration. 
 
 Blessed are those who not having seen, have 
 yet believed !" 
 
 These remarks have been indulged to an un- 
 usual length, as preparatory to many instances 
 of Satanic power, manifested in the bodies of 
 men, now to be given in illustration of the pre- 
 sent work. And as all this bodily exercise has 
 been derided by some, as caused by some idle 
 hope or fear, these reflections have been made 
 to prepare the minds of such, to read the follow- 
 ing facts. * 
 
 The power of Satan^ exemplified by Join Wesley, 
 
 Journal of May 1739, relates the case of J. 
 H — n, in London. He was a man of regular life, 
 and of religious, external profession, in the 
 
152 AFPENDlX. 
 
 church, He came to see my ministry ; to see 
 my people affected, as he supposed, by their de- 
 lusions ; against which he spoke to many with 
 much zeal. As we were going thence, one met 
 us, to inform us, he was ** fallen raving mad 
 I went with his neighbours into his house, and 
 found him on his floor, and two or three men 
 were holding him as well as they could. He 
 was crying out, <^ behold the just judgments of 
 God and immediately fixing his eyes on me, 
 and stretching out his hand, cried " Ah, this is 
 he, who I said was a deceiver ; but God has 
 overtaken me: — this is no delusion." He then 
 roared out — O thou devil ! thou cursed devil ! 
 Yea, thou legion of devils ! thou canst not stay — 
 [mark, here he knew that the power of Satan 
 was violently hindering him from coming to 
 Christ !] Christ will cast thee out : — I know his 
 work is begun : — tear me to pieces if thou wilt : 
 but thou canst not hurt me !" He then beat him- 
 self against the floor, his breast beating as in 
 the pangs of death, and great drops of sweat 
 trickling down his face. ^We all betook our- 
 selves to prayer — his pangs ceased, and both his 
 soul and body were set at liberty!" [Can any 
 man explain away these remarkable influences, 
 as arising from mistaken conceptions of reli- 
 
APPENDIX. tB$ 
 
 gion, such as some would call enthusiasm ! 
 did ever any notional errors ever so affect any 
 man's body /] 
 
 Journal, 1st. vol. year 1740. 1 was a little sur- 
 prised at some, who were buffetted of Satan, in 
 an ujiusual manner, by such a spirit oHaughter, 
 as they could in no wise resist^ though it was 
 pain and grief unto them. I could scarce have 
 believed the account they gave me, had I not 
 known the same thing ten or eleven years ago ; 
 [meaning that it actually occured to his brother 
 and himself; for he adds,] part of Sunday, my 
 brother and I, then used to spend in walking in 
 the meadows, and singing psalms : but one 
 day, just as we were beginning to sing, he burst 
 out into a loud laughter, I asked him, if he was 
 distracted ? and began to be very angry ; and 
 presently after to laugh as loud as he ! nor could 
 we possibly refrain, though we were ready to 
 tear ourselves in pieces, but yf ere forced to go 
 home, without singing another line." [Who 
 could have possibly believed this John Wesley, 
 but on his own veracity !] 
 
 At nearly this same time, 21st. May 1740, 
 his Journal records, to wit : " In the evening, 
 such a spirit of laughter was among us, that 
 many were offended. But the attention of all 
 
454 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 was soon fixed on poor L. S. whom we all knew 
 to be no dissembler. One so riolently and 
 variously torn of the evil one, did I never see 
 before. Sometimes she laughed till almost 
 strangled ; then broke out into cursing, and 
 blaspheming, then stamped and struggled with 
 incredible strength ; then cried out, O eternity ! 
 
 0 that I had never been born ! at last, she faintly 
 called on Christ to help her, and the violence 
 of her pangs ceased. We were mostly con- 
 vinced now, that those who were under this 
 strange temptation, could not help it : only 
 E. B. and A. H. were of another mind ; — but 
 on two days later, God suffered Satan to teach 
 them better. They were suddenly seized in the 
 same manner as the rest, and laughed, whether 
 they would or no; almost without ceasing. 
 Upon prayer being made for them, they were 
 delivered in a moment." [Shall we dare to re- 
 ject such a plain detailed /acf, however incre- 
 dible to us, when so explicitly vouched by John 
 Wesley himself! we may be glad, if Satan has 
 less power now.] 
 
 Journal, March 174.3, vol. 1. I concluded 
 my second course of visiting [mark how vigilant 
 to watch over the conduct of his ilock !] in which 
 
 1 inquired particularly into two things : 1st, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 155 
 
 The cause of those, who had almost every night 
 the last week, cried out aloud during the preach- 
 ing: — 2ncl, The reasons of those who separated 
 from us. As to tlie former, I found they had 
 all been persons in health and not at all si^b- 
 ject to fits. That this had come upon every 
 one of them in a moment, without any previous 
 notice, while they were either hearing the word 
 of God, or thinking on what they heard. That, 
 in that moment, they dropt down, lost all their 
 strength, and were seized with violent pain. 
 This they expressed in different manners : 
 some said, they felt just as if a sword was run- 
 ning through them ; others, that a great weight 
 seemed upon them : some felt quite choaked ; 
 others, that it was as if their heart and their 
 inside was tearing to pieces." • Mr. Wesley 
 then proceeds to give his opinions : — " these 
 symptoms I can no more impute to any natural 
 cause, [we hope unbelievers will think of this, 
 and consider if they can find a natural cause;] 
 than to the Spirit of God. I can make no doubt, 
 but it was Satan tearing them, as they were 
 coming to Christ : [even as he often did in the 
 gospel :] and hence proceeded those grievous 
 cries, whereby he might design to discredit the 
 work of God, and to affright fearful people from 
 
156 APPEISDIX. 
 
 hearing that word, [mark this !] whereby their 
 souls might be saved." *« 1 found (he says too,) 
 that their minds had been as variously affected, 
 as their bodies : — of this, some could give scaree 
 any account at all ; which also, I impute to that 
 wise Spiritf purposely stunning and confounding, 
 as many as he could, that they might not be able 
 to bewray his devices ! — others gave a clear ac- 
 count of <heir conviction and sense of sin, and 
 the abiding wrath of God on them ; and then 
 the accuser CRme with great power, telling them 
 * there was no hope, they were lost forever.' 
 Then the pains of body seized them in a moment, 
 and extorted those loud and bitter cries." 
 
 Mr. Wesley's Journal, mentions a case at 
 Bristol ; ^« many of us joined in prayer, for one 
 that was grievously tormented. She raged 
 more and more for about two hours, and then 
 our Lord gave her rest. One who saw her 
 operations, murmured at it — but when he went 
 borne, he was seized while praying, with such 
 amazing feelings and dread, as made him also 
 agonize, till praying people came to deliver him 
 alsOf from the violence of Satan." 
 
 January 1743. I witnessed a very odd kind 
 of madness in Mrs. K. — , whom I had been sent 
 to visit: — after singing, I kneeled down to 
 
APPEifDIX. 
 
 prayer,— when I felt as if I had been plunged 
 into cold water, and immediately there was 
 such a roar, that my voice was quite drowned. 
 She was then raised up in her bed — her whole 
 body moving at once, without bending one joint, 
 or limb, just as if it were one piece of stone 
 then it was writhed into all kinds of postures— . 
 the same horrid yell continuing. But we left 
 her not, till all the symptoms ceased, and she was 
 rejoicing and praising God. [Who can disbe- 
 lieve this, on Mr. Wesley's circumstantial de- 
 tail : and who can account for it, from any na- 
 tural causes ?] 
 
 Having thus shown, some strong evidences 
 of preternatural influences, in England, <^c. (and 
 several more could have been given,) it will not 
 be amiss, to close the whole, with some in- 
 stances of our own, in the United States, to wit : 
 
 THE JERKS IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 I had heard, says Lorenzo Dow, of the jerks, 
 or jerking exercise, which appeared first near 
 Knoxville, in August 1804, to the great alarm 
 of the people. As I doubted the reports I 
 heard, I set out to see for myself. In February 
 1805, I preached in Knoxville, to hundreds 
 
 ^ ^^^^ mA>jL^Jf<M^ 'd-MM^ ^ -tvPfe 
 
 ^-fini^*^ Sm^*^^,^ %Arw%>^u^^ tffi^^ t^i£^ SlmM* ', t^&^j J 
 
158 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 iDore than could get into the court-house ; the 
 governor being present : about 150 appeared 
 to have the jerking exercise. I thence rode 
 18 miles to hold a night meeting, and had about 
 twenty Quakers among my hearers ; but their 
 usiial stillness was interrupted ; for about a 
 dozen of them had the jerks, as powerful as I 
 had seen, even to making them grunt. I have 
 seen all denominations of religion exercised with 
 the jerks: gentleman and lady, black and white, 
 young and old, without exception. I passed a 
 meeting house, where I observed the under- 
 growth had been cut away for a camp meeting, 
 and from 50 to 100 saplins were left, breast high, 
 on purpose for the people, who were jerked^ to 
 hold by. — I observed where they had held on : 
 they had kicked up the earth, as a horse stamp- 
 ing flies. A Presbyterian minister told me, 
 while he was preaching, the day before, some 
 had the jerkSf and a young man from North 
 Carolina, attempted to mimic them, and was 
 soon seized with them ; and being ashamed, at- 
 tempted to mount his horse and be off, but his 
 foot jerked so, that he could not put it into the 
 stirrup — but he was helped on, and then could 
 not set alone." 
 
 1 believe it does not aifect those naturalists, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 159 
 
 who wish and try to get it to philosophize upon 
 it ; — and rarely those, who are the most pious ; 
 but the lukewarm, lazy professor, is subject to 
 it. The wicked fear it and are subject to it : 
 but the persecutors are more subject to it than 
 any : and they sometimes have cursed and swore, 
 and damned it, whilst jerking. There is no 
 pain in them, except resisted, and then it will 
 weary more in an hour, than a day's labour. 
 At liberty camp meeting, in Tennessee, I saw 
 the jerks, and some danced ! a strange exercise ^ 
 indeed ! this, like the jerks, is involuntary, but 
 both may be resisted, for both require the con- 
 sent of the will .'—if not yielded to, the jerks 
 worry much, and the dancing if resisted makes 
 very great deadness of mind. I have seen the 
 jerks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky." 
 
 Lorenzo, seems to think they may be per- 
 mitted of God, to convince men ; but is it likely. 
 He would use any measures, which should make 
 
 the most part" to blaspheme, when he has so 
 many better ways! Why too, use any means 
 never before noticed in 1800 years, nor even 
 alluded to in Scripture ! but is it not, too much like 
 the cases before mentioned by Mr. Wesley, and 
 ascribable solely to the influence of that same evil 
 
160 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 spirit, who loves to be present in every revival, 
 to disparage the work of God ! Is it not rather 
 permitted in our eyes, on purpose to apprise us 
 of his great power, and to tell us, to beware 
 what spirit we follow : and how shall we shun 
 his devices, if we take not heed to these things ! 
 "We admit that <^ Satan comes also" even among 
 the Sons of God ! but we are seldom expecting 
 to see any display of his subtleties. Where the 
 gospel too, is newest and least regarded, there 
 he is at first as in Tennessee, in most power, 
 because least subdued by prayer and fasting ! 
 Observe too, who escape / " the pious^' who are 
 « fenced about" and preserved from his wiles, 
 and the reasoning class who would most philoso- 
 phize and analize it. Those whom he affects 
 most, are, first, his own peculiar children, the 
 persecutors-^then the unconcerned and careless ^ 
 and last, and least, the lukewarm and half 
 awakened !■— -they are thus, near all his own 
 childrenj but of the latter the wiley spirit 
 sometimes deceives himself — for they, by the 
 providence of God, get alarmed and pray, and 
 so are often lost to him !— Since religion has 
 become more prevalent the jerks have sub- 
 sided. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Power and state of religious illusionSf as exevd' 
 plified in various religious professors. 
 
 The fame of the extravagance of the bodily 
 exercise of the French Prophets, in the last cen- 
 tury, was then general throughout Europe. Mr. 
 Wesley gives two instances of those whom he 
 saw. Two men came to see him, to deliver a 
 prophetic message ; and said, they would not 
 eat nor drink till it was fulfilled. He, disre- 
 garding their pretension, did however, shew 
 them into a cold and solitary room, where they 
 sat all day, and then silently withdrew, without 
 challenging his conviction of the errand. In 
 another case, he visited, by request, a woman : 
 after sitting in silence sometime, she began to 
 be greatly agitated, and seemed shut up from 
 outward observation : at intervals she came to 
 herself, and then in incoherent rhapsodic^ of 
 scripture gave her exhortations. 
 
 The " ranters," both in England and New- 
 England, called Quakers, but disowned by the 
 real Quakers, were numerous in both countries. 
 They considered it meritorious, to enter and 
 disturb churches. In England, a female, 
 (says Neale,) entered into White-Hall chapel, 
 quiU naked : — another came into Parliament, 
 09 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 and broke a trencher ; saying, ^« thus shall ye 
 be broken.'' Several of them went through 
 towns and villages denouncing judgments and 
 calamities upon the nation : and others have 
 undertaken to raise their friends from the 
 dead. They seemed to design to reduce all 
 religion to allegory. Against these Ranters^ 
 Barclay, Gough, and other Quakers have writ- 
 ten, as persons outraging all decency and order. 
 Even in New-England, sixty years ago, the 
 Ranters there, sought to disturb the worship of 
 others, and were glad to be ill treated, as sup- 
 posing it meritorious. They would enter a 
 church with a spinning wheel, and attempt to 
 spin : another would strike against the pulpit, 
 and cry out, awake ! awake ! another would 
 enter, calling out, it is against the word of God 
 to make long prayers ! 
 
 How strange was the infatuation of James 
 Baylor; who, until his gross error, was an ad- 
 mired speaker among the early Quakers. He 
 received divine honours of his followers, who 
 believed him to be *^ the Prince of Peace, the 
 only begotten Son of God and as he entered 
 into Bristol, on a led horse, they cried lios- 
 anna, holy, holy, is the Lord, &c." They 
 kissed his feet and licked his wounds. His 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 own illusive belief seems to have been, that 
 Christ dwelt in him, and that he might there- 
 fore lawfully permit his followers' devotions, in 
 honour to the spirit which dwelt in him. So he 
 construed it ; but he was convicted of blasphe7ny, 
 by the Parliament, and had his tongue burned 
 through, and his forehead branded. He after- 
 wards came to his senses, and repented of his 
 extravagance ; saying in his publication, I re- 
 noiince my acts, and all those ranting, wild 
 spirits, that gathered about me, in that time of 
 darkness, with all their wild acts, against the 
 honour of God." In this case, we behold, not 
 only his own illusions, but that he could actually 
 find a body of people to partake of his errors — to 
 rejoice in them, and to confirm his own ! 
 
 About the same time, arose the sect called 
 Muggletonians. Muggleton, and John Reeves, 
 asserted, they were the two witnesses spoken of 
 in Revelation xi. 5. The former published a 
 paper, asserting <* that he was the chief judge 
 in the world, in passing sentence of eternal 
 death and damnation upon the souls and bodies 
 of men ; and that he had already cursed and 
 damned many ; and that no spirit of Christ 
 could be able to deliver from his curse." R. 
 Farnswortb, among the Quakers, wrote against 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 his pretensions, — but he met mth follow ersvfho 
 recorded his prophecies. He was sentenced to 
 the pillory, and died 1697. 
 
 Even among those who continued accredited 
 members amonj^ the Quakers, there were several 
 instances of those misconceptions, as I apprehend, 
 which occasionally most beset those who follow 
 the rule of " particular faith," which in itself, is 
 a species of enthusiasm. To this cause we ascribe 
 the journey of two women, Catherine Evans 
 and Sarah Cheevers, to Leghorn and Alexan- 
 dria ; and of another to the grand Signior ; by ,| 
 which the former endured three years impri- i 
 sonmentby the Inquisition in Malta, and much 
 suffering, without effecting their object, or any 
 other apparent good. John Philby, and William 
 Moore too, must needs go into Hungary, where 
 they suffered torture and imprisonments without 
 attaining any visible good end. In these cases 
 they went, because pressed in spirit," i. e. 
 felt their minds drawn that way. By this rule i 
 of action, it is said by Neale, the Protector ' 
 Cromwell was actuated, " One of his favourite ^ 
 principles, says he, was a particular faith 
 that is, if any thing was strongly impressed i 
 upon his mind in prayer, he apiTrehended it | 
 
 came immediately from God ; but if there were 
 
 i 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 165 
 
 110 impressions, but a flatness in his devotions, 
 it was a denial : — it was therefore impossible, 
 (he adds,) that a man's conduct could be just or 
 consistent, while it was directed by such un- 
 certain principles.'* 
 
 In more modern times, we have whole so- 
 cieties of deluded religionists. Such are the 
 adherents of Johanna Southcote, who lately 
 died in England, and received semi-divine 
 honours : — Jemima Wilkinson, among us, in the 
 North West part of New- York : — and the shak- 
 ing, and dancing Quakers near Albany, and at 
 Harmony, near Pittsburgh 5 neither of whom 
 admit of marriage. 
 
 The inferences from such premises, should 
 be, that men may be deluded, not only indivi- 
 dually, but collectively ; and even abide in their 
 illusions, as well^ compacted societies. We shall 
 see too, from instances hereafter adduced^ from 
 Mr. Wesley's observations in his societies, that 
 it is a property of our nature*, to be misled ; and 
 thus we may learn, how very much it behoves 
 us at all times, to restrain our affections and 
 passions, within the rules of right reason and 
 Scripture precept. 
 
166 
 
 APPEICDIX, 
 
 The power of enthusiasm^ eocemplijied by John 
 Wesley, 
 
 In September 1740, his Journal records 
 " I met with one, who having been lifted up 
 with the abundance of joy which God had given 
 her, had fallen into such blasphemies and vain 
 imaginations, as are not common to men. In 
 the afternoon, I found another instance, — one 
 who after much love of God in the heart, be- 
 came wise, far above what is written ; and set 
 her private revelations (so called) on the self 
 same footing with the written word. He then 
 gives some instances of her delusions. 
 
 September 1742. " Finding many had been 
 offended at my sermon, who were supposed 
 strong in faith, I determined to examine the 
 matter thoroughly. I heard them relate their 
 experiences, and approved of.their feeling the 
 working of the Spirit of God, in peace, and joy, 
 and love : — but as to some of them " feeling the 
 Dlood of Christ, running upon their arms, op 
 going down their throat, or poured like warm 
 water upon their breast, or heart ; I plainly told 
 them, it was mere empty dreams, of an heated 
 imagination." [Thus it is manifest, real pro- 
 fessors can believe strong delusions !] 
 
167 
 
 June 1742 ; I had a long conversation with 
 Mr. Simpson : — I am persuaded, that what- 
 ever he does, is in the uprightness of his heart, 
 but he is led into a thousand mistakes, hy one 
 li, wrong principle : the making inward impres- 
 SP sions his rule of action and not the written 
 ™ word.'' 
 
 December 1742 ; I was surprised and griev- 
 ed, at a genuine instance of enthusiasm. I. B. 
 who had received a sense of the love of God a 
 few days before, came riding through the town, 
 hollowing and shouting, and driving all before 
 him ; telling them, " God had told him he 
 should be a king, and tread his enemies under 
 his feet." I sent him home immediately, and 
 advised him to cry night and day to God, to de- 
 liver him from Satan." 
 
 Journal, June 1776 ; <^ I talked largely, says 
 John Wesley, with a pious woman at New- 
 Castle, whom I could not well understand — I 
 could not doubt of her being quite sincere ; nay, 
 and much devoted to God, [mark, her sincerity 
 and devotion could not save her !] but she had 
 fallen among some well meaning enthusiasts, 
 [marl^, there were many,] who taught her, so 
 to attend to the inward voice,*' as to quit the 
 preaching, the Lord's supper, &c. I jfind no 
 
±68 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 persons harder to deal with, than these : — one 
 knows not how to advise them. " They must 
 not act contrary to their conscience,^^ though it 
 be an erroneous one and who can convince 
 them that it is erroneous ? none but the Al- 
 mighty." 
 
 Even Mr. Wesley himself, was once mysti- 
 ^ eally inclined — his Journal of December 1788, 
 speaking of his brother Charles' Poems, says, 
 f< some still savour of that poisonous mys- 
 ticisnif with which we were both not a little 
 tainted, before we went to America. — This 
 gave a gloomy cast, first to his mind, and then 
 to many of his verses — this made him fre- 
 quently describe religion as a melancholy thing j 
 \ this so often sounded in his ears, to the de- 
 ( rtsert," and strongly persuaded in favour of soli- 
 ^tude." 
 
 His Journal of July 1778 ; speaking of the 
 " life of Mr, Morsay," then published, whom 
 he had known for many years ; — he says, he 
 was a man of uncommori understanding, and 
 greatly devoted to God ; — but he was a consu- 
 mate enthusiast, e\en forty ijears ago ! — not the 
 word of God, but his own imagination, which 
 ' he took for div>ine inspirations, were the sole 
 rule of both his words and actions. Hence 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 169 
 
 arose his marvellous instability, taking such 
 huge strides, backwards and forwards ; hence 
 his frequent darkness of soul : for when he de- 
 parted from God's word, God departed from 
 him — he wonderfully blends solid piety and 
 wild enthusiasm ; and he is therefore a most 
 dangerous writer." Mr. Wesley's Journal con- 
 tains many other similar cases. 
 
 The following is J. IVesley^s advice on enthusiasm, 
 
 ' Beware of that daughter of pride enthu- 
 siasm ! O keep at the utmost distance from 
 it: give no place to an heated imagination. 
 Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do 
 not easily suppose dreams, voices, impres- 
 sions, or revelations, to be from God, They 
 may be from him : they may be from nature : 
 they may be from the devil. Therefore, believe 
 not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether 
 they be of God. Try all things by the written 
 wordf and let all bow down before it.^ You are 
 in danger every hour, if you depart ever so little 
 from Scripture : yea, or from the plain literal 
 meaning of any text, taken in connexion with 
 
 * When the Bishop of London examined John Wesley, he asked 
 him if he was not enthusiastic in some things — his memorahle 
 answer was, ** I make the word of God the rule of all my actions, 
 and I no more follow any secret impulse in lieu thereof, than I follow 
 Mahomet or Confucius." 
 
170 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the context. And so you are, if you despise, 
 or lightly esteem reason, knowledge, or human 
 learning : every one of which is an excellent 
 gift of God, and may serve the noblest purposes. 
 Pray that you yourself may abound in them 
 more and more. To expect knowledge without 
 searching for it, is one general inlet to enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 *< The very desire of growing in grace, may 
 sometimes be an inlet of enthusiasm. As it con- 
 tinually leads us to seek new grace, it may IcsmI 
 us unawares, to seek something else new, be- 
 side new degrees of love to God and man. So 
 it has led some, to seek and fancy they had re- 
 ceived gifts of a new kind : — one ground of many 
 of such mistakes, is, the taking every fresh, 
 strong application of any Scriptures to tlie heart, 
 to be a gift of a new kind ; not knowing, that 
 several of such Scriptures [he here enumerates 
 several kinds,] are not fulfilled ijet ; that most 
 of the others, are fulfilled when we are justi- 
 fied ; the rest the moment we are sanctified. 
 
 « Another ground of mistake is, not considering 
 deeply, thatiorc is the highest gift of God : that 
 all visions, revelations and manifestations, what- 
 ever, are little things compared to love. 
 
 Isay, yet again, beware of enthusiasm ! such 
 is, the imagining you have the gift of prophecy- 
 ing, or of discerning spirits j which I do not be- 
 
ArPENDlX. 
 
 171 
 
 lieve one of you has ; no nor ever had yet. Be- • 
 ware of ju define: people to be right, or wrong, 
 by your own feelings. This is no Scriptural way 
 of judging." 
 
 \_Seehis Tract on Christian Perfectioiiy in the hook of discipline. 
 
 Rev. George Whitfield* s candid confession, 
 
 " I came (says he) soon into the worlds — I 
 have carried high sail, whilst running through 
 a torrent of popularity and contempt ; and by 
 this means, have sometimes been in danger of 
 upsetting. I know I am a ma]||^f like passions 
 with others^ and consequently may mis- 
 taken nature for grace, imagination for revela- 
 tion, and the fire of my own temper, for the 
 pure and sacred flame of holy zeal, — which 
 Cometh yrom God's altar. Alas! alas ! in how 
 many things have I acted wrong I i have been 
 too rash and hasty in giving characters, both of 
 persons and places : — I have too, often made im- 
 pressions without the written word, as my rule 
 of acti(m. Being fond of Scriptural language, 
 I have oftenheen too bitter in my zeal : wildfire^ 
 has been mixed with it ; and I find I have fre- 
 quentlij written and spoken in my own spirit, 
 when I thought I was writing and speaking en* 
 tirely with the assistance of the Spirit of God." 
 What amiable penitence and candour ! 
 
172 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 Sentiments of the great and good Mr, Locke ; on 
 religion and enthusiasm, — prejudice and error, 
 
 [ See vol. 2nd, ^i:th book, on the human understanding. 
 
 Men therefore, cannot be excused from un- 
 tlerstanding the words, and framing the general 
 notions relating to religion, right. For men, 
 may not be called rational creatures and chris- 
 tians, who know not so much as the very first 
 principles of it. 
 
 There is a graund of assent, which with 
 some men has the same authority, and is as 
 confidently reli^ on, as either faith or reason; 
 I mean enthusiasm : which laying hy reason, 
 would set up revelation without it. Whereby 
 in efftdf it takes away both reason and revela- 
 tion, and substitutes in the room of it, the un- 
 grounded fancies of a man's own brain, and 
 assumes them for a foundation, both of opinion 
 and conduct. 
 
 Immediate revelation, being a much easier 
 7vay for men to establish and regulate their con- 
 duct, than the tedious labour of strict reasoning, 
 it is no wonder, some have been very apttojjre- 
 tend to revelation, and to persuade themselves 
 that they are under the peculiar guidance of 
 heaven." 
 
 Their minds being thus prepared, whatever 
 groundless opinion comes to settle itself strongly 
 
r 
 
 APPENDIX. 173 
 
 upon their fancies, is an illumination from the 
 spirit of God." St. Paul himself (he adds) be- 
 lieved he did well, and that he had a call to it, 
 w hen he persecuted the christians, whom he 
 confidently thought in the wrong : — but it was 
 he, and not theyf who were mistaken ! 
 
 Good men arc men still liable to mistakes,* 
 and are sometimes warmly engaged errors,. 
 which they take for divine truths, shining in 
 their minds with the clearest lights. Satan 
 can transform himself into an angel of light, and 
 iheij who are led by this son of the morning, 
 are as fidly satisfied of the illumination, — i. e.. 
 are as strongly persuaded that they are enligh- 
 tened by the Spirit of God, as any one who is 
 so, can be : they acquiesce, and rejoice in it, and 
 are actuated by it,'^ 
 
 He that takes away reason, to make way for 
 revelation, puts out the light of Jo/A*^ For reason 
 is natural revelation, whereby God has laid 
 truth within the reach of our natural faculties ; 
 and revelation is. natural reason enlarged, hy a 
 new set of discoveries, given by God imme- 
 diately ;■ which reason vouches the truth of, 
 the testimony and proofs it gives that they came 
 from God. [How very important are these very 
 
 * See Whitfield's confession. See also Edwards' ^ senttmaits^ 
 P % 
 
 1 
 
just discriminations, m using our faculties in 
 judging of such things !] 
 
 Reason is lost upon such — they are above it : 
 they see light (in their own opinion) infused in- 
 to their understanding, and cannot be mistaken 
 in what they fed : — it shews itself, say they, like 
 the bright sunshine. Thus they support them- 
 selves, and are sure reason hath nothing to do 
 with what they see and/eeL These men say 
 they are sure, because they are sure ; and 
 their persuasions are right, only because they 
 are strong in them. For when they are strip- 
 ped of their metaphor — seeing sl\h\ feeling — this 
 is all it amounts to." 
 
 « The strength of our persuasions is no evi- 
 dence at all of their rectitude : — men may be 
 as positive in error as in truth. 
 
 But to examine this light, and ihisfeeling ! 
 These are two very different perceptions, and 
 must be carefully distinguished, if we would not 
 impose on ourselves. I may perceive the truth 
 of a proposition, and yet not perceive it is from 
 God, because there be spirits not divine, which 
 may excite these ideas in me : and W strength 
 persuasion he the light which must guide, how 
 shall any one distinguish between the delusions 
 of Satan, and the inspirations of the Holy spirit ? 
 Much less is a strong persuasion that it is tnie, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 a perception that it \s from God, or so much as 
 true : — for wliere a proposition is known to be 
 true, revelafion is ?ieedfe5S for why reveal to 
 any one what he already knows ? A pro- 
 position of which we are persuaded,, but do 
 not know to be true, is not seeing^ hwt believing : 
 and these are wholly distinct inlets to truth. — 
 What I s^e, I know, by the evidence of the thing 
 itself: — what I believe, I take to be so upon the 
 testimony of another ; and unless I have such tes- 
 timony, what ground have / of believing? I 
 
 MUST SEE, THEREFORE, THAT GOD REVEALS 
 THIS THING TO ME, OR ELSiS I SEE NOTHIN6 ! 
 
 The question then is here — how do I know that 
 God is the revealer of this to me ? If I know 
 not this, how ^^reat soever the assurance is that I 
 am possessed with, it is groundless : whatever 
 light I pretend to, it is hut enthusiasm 1 all such 
 confidence is vsi^xe presumption, and they run in 
 this circle — to wit : it is a revelation, because 
 they firmly believe it ; and they believe it, be- 
 cause it is a revelation !" 
 
 « In what I have said, (says Locke) I am far 
 from denying that God can, or doth sometimes 
 enlighten men's minds, in the apprehending of 
 certain truths, or excite them to good actions by 
 the immediate assistance of the Holv spirit, 
 without any extraordinary signs accompanying 
 
176 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 it. Sutin such cases too, we have reason and 
 tiie scripture, unerring rules, to know whether it 
 be from God or no. Where reason or scripture 
 is express for any opinion, or action,*we may re- 
 ceive it as of divine authority : but it is not the 
 strength of our private persuasion, within our- 
 selves, that can warrant it to be a light or mo- 
 tion from Heaven ; nothing can do that but the 
 written woi'd of God without us, or that standard 
 of reason which is common to us, with all men/* 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 112. 
 This note ought to have been appended there, to the 
 -remarks on the words, " we are become as the filth 
 and the offscouring of the earth.^' 
 
 The above words, and some of similar import, 
 ^ have led some of our brethren earnestly to inculcate 
 
 the notion, that every man who would become a 
 christian, must make ijp nis»mind to receive 2?erse- 
 cution and hatred of all men, as his appointed and 
 unavoidable lot. Minds thus prepared, have been 
 insensible to just censure for real excesses, because 
 they regarded all such objections as a proof of their 
 persecution and discipleship : — Thus their excesses 
 have been incurable. They have heard such insu- 
 lated texts as these : " Ye shall be hated of all men 
 for my name's sake:'' — " They who live godly in 
 Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution."-—" I have 
 
 I 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 177 
 
 chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 
 hateth you." — " Marvel not if the world hate you." 
 Persons, misled by such texts, (because they do not 
 seek to understand their context) actually labour to 
 acquire such sRamelessness in their actions and 
 emotions, as may make them disregard whatever 
 others (even their own brethren) may think or speak 
 of them. They quite overlook the absolute fact, 
 that millions have had the love of God, and have died 
 triumphant deaths, who never, in all their lives, en- 
 countered any persecution whatever ! 
 
 Let us now to the Law and to the Testimony, for 
 an explication of this matter ! Our Lord (Matt. x. 
 22,) says " Fe shall be hated of all men for my 
 name's sake." He says not this of us, but of ye, 
 the twelve apostles, whom he is then commission- 
 ing, and who were then to be hated, (i. e. disliked) 
 in a peculiar manner, because of their attachment 
 to his then disliked name. Some had then called 
 him Beelzebub. This whole chapter, of 42 verses, 
 is entirely occupied with their peculiar commission 
 and instruction. That it was peculiar, is manifest, 
 by their being gifted to work miracles, (v. 8,) and 
 to live without purse or scrip ; (v. 9,) and when 
 brought before Governors and Kings, for his sake, 
 the spirit, (v. 19,) was to give them, in that same 
 hour, what they should speak. The word hated, 
 has not now, in general, the same acceptation which 
 it had in the time of King James, when it was so 
 translated. It is a Saxon word, meaning simplj. 
 
 fre£^ (fJU^, du^c^ Cc^y^'Jt^ ^ *6.2^;a£ar ilr^ui^£w. 
 
17$ 
 
 APPJSNDIX. 
 
 contrary to love^^ — i. e. not loved ;— see Johnson's 
 folio dictionary. It niight therefore be read, ye 
 shall be dis-liked of all men, &c. ! It is in this 
 sense that Jesus elsewhere says : " he that loveth his 
 life shall lose it, and he that haieth f^, e. loveth not) 
 his life, shall keep it." So also in Amos : " hate 
 (i, e. love not) the evil, and love the good." The 
 words all inen, prove too, that the men of that day 
 only were intended ; because all men would now 
 embrace many millions of christians, as hating the 
 twelve apostles, which would be absurd. Besides, it 
 was the fact even then, that all men did not liate 
 them, for many believed on them through their mira- 
 cles, and fed them ; and therefore it is more just to 
 suppose, that the all (for men is not in the original) 
 meant only the Governors, Princes, and other men 
 in authority, before whom it was said they were to 
 be brought and tried. 
 
 The 2 Timothy, iii. 12, says, " yea, and all that will 
 live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
 This, the same class of our brethren, use, as mean- 
 ing, that persecution must be the lot of ever?/ godly 
 person. Now is this at all the fact in our free and 
 happy land ? And does not the context show, as 
 clear as a sun beam, that the apostle simply means, 
 that every godly man is obligated by his meek pro- 
 fession, as a christian, to suffer, i. e. to bear, to en«. 
 dure patiently, (" persecutionem patientur") perse- 
 cution, wiien it befalls him ? [The same apostle 
 says to the Corinthians? " being persecuted, we suf- 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 fer," i. e. we bear it. — ** Thou hasjully knowrT^fc" 
 (says Paul to Timothy, in the same connexion, for 
 it is him he is inst -ucting herein) m / patience, per- 
 secutions and afflictions, which I endured at Anti- 
 och, Iconium, and Ljsti a and therefore, he says 
 to him also, — chap. iv. 5, — endure afflictions, &c. 
 So far from its being our absolute lot to suffer by af- 
 flictions, that St. Paul actually cheers his son Tim- 
 othy, by declaring " ozt* of them all, the Lord deliv- 
 ered me !" 
 
 Some of our most irregular brethren, have with 
 much complacency, affected to make the term godly 
 stand for themselves ; fondly imagining, that their 
 brethren who have not fellowship in their emotions, 
 are indeed the persecutors of whom Paul spoke. 
 
 Perhaps it ought to be intimated, in closing 
 this work, that this manner of using scriptures, 
 without reference to the context, is not peculiar 
 to the Society of Methodists. The practice is oc- 
 casionally too prevalent among others. If exam- 
 ples j^ere cited from Books and Sermons, a 
 volume, instead of this note, might be written. — 
 It is to be regretted, that the -scriptures have 
 too often been used as a nose of wax, which 
 may be fashioned to every feature. The practice 
 may have originated from a very innocent cause ; — 
 because citations which can run into the sense of 
 any religious composition, without establishing 
 a doctrine or opinion contrary to the original sense, 
 may be tolerated, as we do other ornamental 
 quotations. In the exceptionable manner, ^iImmw- ryucrt^ 
 
180 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 mentioned, I might have enforced my general argu- 
 ments, in this book, by citations like these ; viz : 
 " bodily exercise proiiteth but little," — and " the 
 ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, is of great price 
 in the sight of God." Their abstract sense certain- 
 ly suited my arguments ; but as they were not said 
 in reference to excessive bodily exercises, and bois- 
 terous acclamations, that I know of, they would not 
 have been relevant, nor honest quotations. 
 
 |C?* As this work is closing, the public is favoured 
 with an account of that excellent woman of God, Mrs, 
 Mary Fletcher. Let my readers examine it, and see, 
 if they can, if she was in any way conversant with 
 such a religion as this Book protests against. The 
 following are some of her views ; viz : " The Lord 
 shewed me I was not to set joy as the mark, but a 
 ready submission to his will." — " I am more drawn 
 to a quiet waiting." — " Holiness is not to be mea- 
 sured by perfect joy, but by perfect resignation." — 
 When she was sanctified, [it was in a select meet- 
 ing for prayer] " I felt a calmness overspread my 
 spirit, and by faith I said, thy will be done in me 5 
 and in that I felt my rest :" " I gave not the least 
 sign [to those around her] by either word or mo- 
 tion, of what I felt within : — I felt an unspeakable 
 peace to my soul, but T did not feel joy. "X After- 
 wards, her general exercise was " a solid rest."— 
 She was converted when alone, and while sitting 
 and musing on the means to attain faith. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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