a Brother of the same trade to meet half way, and not to preach publicly against him, then is PRUDENCE of heavenly birth, and sent for the assistance of the Saints: at present, indeed, honestly employed in the charitable errand of inviting Mr. G to play the Hypocrite with him for he declares Mr. G to be absolutely above conviction; that is, in conscience unable to stir a step; which, too, was his own case: yet, in the same breath, he proposes to meet him half way. But Mr. G-approved himself the honester man. From all this we have reason to conclude, that Mr. J. Wesley, amidst his warmest exclamations against Worldly PRUDENCE, against Christian PRUDENCE, and against PRUDENCE of every denomination, had it still in petto to employ a succedaneum, on a pressing occasion ? which he, indeed, calls PRUDENCE; but which, to save the credit of his consistency, he had better have let go under its true name of CRaft.

Thus have I endeavoured to tear off the Mask from the furious and deformed visage of Fanaticism and Seduction. The power of Religion hath enabled me : and the interests of Religion have excited me to this attempt; nothing so much discrediting the Doctrine of GRACE as these counterfeit impressions of the Spirit of God. For, since the descent of the Holy Ghost was no longer in the rushing mighty wind, but in the still small voice, licentious men have been but too apt to conclude, either that GRACE was an imaginary Power; or at most, that it was no other than that assistance which the divine attribute of Goodness, as discoverable by natural light, was always ready to impart to distressed and helpless Mortals; just as they would persuade themselves that REDEMPTION is no→ thing else than that restoration to God's favour, which

his mercy, discoverable too by the same light, prepares and lays open to repentant Sinners.

The Reader, in conclusion, will take notice, that the order I have here followed, is that which is best adapted to shorten the controversy, and to cut off all chicane and evasion.

1. I have singled out the Founder and Leader of the Sect, that no one may have pretence to say, that what, He is here shewn to teach and practise, is not true and genuine METHODISM.

2. I have confined my remarks to his own adventures, recorded by his own pen, and here fairly quoted in his own words; that no one may have pretence to say, I have foolishly confided in false or uncertain reports: or unjustly made the Sect answerable for the indiscretions and absurdities of every obscure FIELD

PREACHER.

3. I have taken the Methodists at their word, when they call themselves members of the Church of England, that I might not run the hazard of confounding both the Reader and myself with long and blind scholastic disputations on original Sin, irresistible Grace, and justifying Faith; on Regeneration, Election, Reprobation, and the immerit of good Works. To their MODE of teaching, and not to the things taught, I confine my discourse. Of that, every reader can judge; and of that, he has a sure rule to judge by, the MARKS delivered by the holy Apostle St. James of the Wisdom which is from above: MARKS, which (for weighty reasons already explained) refer mostly to the mode of teaching; and which, if not found in this new mode of methodist-teaching, are sufficient to convict it of imposture.

:

I NOW turn, for what remains of this Discourse, to those sober Ministers of the Established Church, who hold themselves bound to obey its DISCIPLINE as well as to profess its DOCTRINES.

If any good use can be made of what has been already said, it will be chiefly promoted by these Reverend Men, who, in honour of the Church which they serve, and in gratitude to the State by which they are protected, will make it their first care to support that most just of all Public Laws, the Law of TOLERATION: which, how long soever obstructed in its passage to us, and how late soever arrived amongst us, is certainly of DIVINE ORIGINAL. Nor will such Men ever venture to refine upon it (which will always be to weaken it) by idle distinctions between the letter and the spirit of the Law. For between these, in well-composed Laws, there is no difference; the letter being no other than the language and expression of

the spirit. Indeed, one would wonder, they should ever have been opposed, did we not know how ready Superstition has always been to support the interests of bad Policy, in vitiating both the intellects and the morals of Mankind. God once gave a preparatory Religion to a select People, under the name of LAW, by which the future dispensation was half-revealed and half-hidden. In such a Law the letter and the spirit were necessarily different. A difference, which the Ministers to whom the propagation of this future Religion has been intrusted, have been much accustomed to inculcate. Hence Superstition, in this, as in many other cases of the Jewish Law ill understood, very absurdly applied that distinction, to Civil Laws and compacts; where the full meaning was instant, and should be obvious; and where, as far as there was any real difference, so far were these Laws of defective Composition.

The Friend of Toleration therefore will not, I say, make any distinction, or contend for any difference, between the letter and the spirit of this Sovereign Law of Nature. This mischievous employment will be the task of him who regards it but as a temporary expedient, forced upon us, to prevent greater evils. And as, amongst the friends of Toleration, the English Clergy, seduced by a common error, were not amongst the first to give it a cordial reception, it seems incumbent on their Successors their Successors (who were however amongst the first to detect that common error), to obliterate the memory of the old prejudices of their Order, by the warmest patronage and support of what their more reasonable principles now so much approve.

Their friendly attachment to this Law will be best seen by their regarding it, first, as doing honour, in a spiritual

a spiritual view, to a CHRISTIAN CHURCH; implying confidence in the truth of its constitution, and that it will receive no detriment by a comparison with any other, how near or close soever they may be set together.

And secondly, as bestowing benefit, in an ecclesiastical view, on the NATIONAL CHURCH; it being a certain Maxim, that an Established Religion, under a Toleration and a Test, will always go on enlarging its bounds; since the restraint which this latter Law imposes, is so light, that it is considered rather as a small inconvenience than an injury; a burthen so easy as not to exasperate, but barely to excite in men a disposition to remove it.

In a word, the CHURCH in which religious liberty is cordially entertained and zealously supported, inay be truly called CHRISTIAN for if the mark of the beast be PERSECUTION, as the sacred volumes decipher it; well may we put TOLERATION as the seal of the living Godt. This then is our present boast.

*

True philosophy, so lately cultivated, and now happily made subservient to the Truths of Religion, hath rectified many of those Doctrines which the stillmisapplied aid of the false had deformed. Nor should the HIERARCHY (much honoured of late in the happy recovery of its ancient Ornaments, the Prelates of high birth and noble lineage) be denied the praise, so justly due, for its share in this reform. To men of Family, we are taught, by experience, to ascribe an innate generosity of mind, which inclines them to whatever is polite and decent in private life; and, in public, disposes them to support the rights of humanity and society. They are reckoned to be the low-born and Cell-bred number, in whose minds Revel. vii. 2.

• Revel. xvi. 2.

Bigotry