XXXIX.

I JOHN, iv. 1.

TRY THE SPIRITS, WHETHER THEY BE OF GOD.

OME of the best clergymen of our church, I

SOME

fear, are called methodists, merely because they are in a peculiar manner ferious and attentive to their duty. Some opinions, however, are held by people under this denomination, which seem to be unfcriptural and misleading: and these opinions alone are what I fhould wifh to combat.

Of thefe, the firft is predeftination, which, though receiving a colour from a few infulated texts of Scripture, is totally difcredited by a candid review of the whole. Nothing can be

more abfurd than the revelation of the Gospel,

if the fates of all people are already determined.

Another

Another misleading tenet held by fome of this perfuafion, is that of ajurance, as they call it. They fuppofe they may arrive at fuch a finless state, as may affure them of falvation. This doctrine is difcredited by the very nature of a state of trial; and by the whole tenour of Scripture, which exhorts us every where to care and watchfulness, and to work out our own falvation with fear and trembling *..

Pretences to fudden illuminations, and illapfes of the fpirit, feems alfo to be very unfcriptural and mifchievous. They are unfcriptural, because the few texts they depend on may be much more naturally interpreted in another fenfe. Nor have they the leaft countenance from the general tenour of Scripture. They are mischievous alfo, because they have often led people to do very unwarrantable things, under the pretence, or perhaps under the perfuafion, of being guided by the spirit.

The doctrine of faith seems often to be carried too far. It is too much perhaps feparated from works, when works are left to follow, merely as tefts of faith. If faith be well eftabiifhed, works will follow without question; yet by throwing an ap

* See Hint xxI.

parent

parent flight on works in comparison with faith, a mode of preaching is adopted, different from the ufual mode of Scripture; in which good works are at least as much infifted on as faith. A door also, I should fear, is opened to felf-deceit among lower people; as it is a much easier matter for a man to perfuade himself he has faith, than to practise the duties of a Chriftian life.

Some people throw a ftill greater flight on good works, by applying, as they say, the merits of Chrift to themselves by an act of faith, which they confider as the grand doctrine of Chriftianity*.

We are forry alfo occafionally to find among the ftrict profeffors of this fect an uncharitable temper. Many good men are addicted to this

* Bishop Burnet, speaking of the fectaries of his day, tells us, "the independents were raising the old Antinomian "tenets, as if men, by believing Chrift, were fo united in "him, that his righteousness became theirs, without any "other condition befides their faith; fo that, though "they acknowledged the obedience to his laws neceffary, "they did not call it a condition, but only a confequence, "of juftification. In this they were opposed by most of "the prefbyterians, who seemed to be fenfible, that this ❝ftruck at the root of all religion, as it weakened the obli"gation to a holy life."-BURNET's Hiftory of his own Times, vol. ii. p. 247.

zeal,

zeal, for I fhould gladly derive it from that fource. They make their own definitions of faith, and other virtues; and, if you do not receive them in their way, you are no Chriftian. But this uncharitable opinion refts only among the most bigotted of this perfuafion.

I fhould alfo tax the itinerant and unauthorized preacher of this fect, and the conventicle in which he preaches, but I am doubtful, however fanatical he may be, whether his fanaticism may not work on ignorant people, and roufe their consciences to a fenfe of guilt more forcibly than the inftructions of a better divine.-Befides, they often avail themselves of fuch places as are very distant from churches; and, it is furely better to hear Chrift preached in a conventicle, than nowhere at all.

XL.

PSALM lvi. 3.

NEVERTHELESS,

THOUGH I AM

SOMETIMES

AFRAID, YET PUT I MY TRUST IN THEE.

'HIS whole pfalm is a beautiful and natural

TH!

picture of the conflict in the mind of a good man, between the fears of the world and a trust in Providence.

The Pfalmift begins with a lamentable complaint of the diftreffes he underwent from the violence of his enemies. Be merciful unto me, O God; for man goeth about to devour me. He is daily fighting and troubling me.

Then, a gleam of hope, and trust in God arifing in his heart, yet ftill accompanied with a degree of fear, he cries out, Nevertheless, though