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rankest enthusiasm, and depraved a sound judgment still further by the prejudices he took up against all sobriety in religion."* Wesley is styled, because he asserted it, a hypocrite and madman, moved to seek selfish ends by sectarian craft; an impure zealot, vengeful and unforgiving.† And the experience of multitudes who professed to have undergone that change which the Spirit alone can produce, is pithily termed "the ecstatic ravings of modern fanatics."‡

But that we have it under his own hand, we should have been reluctant to lay the following phrase at Warburton's door: "I will venture to say, that the devil was here only in the office of man midwife to the new birth."§ Of the fanaticism of contributing in any measure to the new birth of souls, we must entirely acquit the bishop, as the whole strain of his efforts bore against the recognition of its possibility in the sense in which regeneration is now understood. If there be intelligibility in language, and his words are a correct clothing of his style, he maintains that the special influence of the Holy Ghost has ceased, because the circumstances have ceased which called for miraculous interpositions and gifts. For instance, the apostles were more ignorant than men now-a-days, therefore He must enlighten them; the prejudices of the world were then arrayed against Christianity, and He must remove them; a profession of religion exposed to martyrdom, He must therefore miraculously support under trial. But now the condition of things is so changed for the better, that He is needed

* Warburton's "Doctrine of Grace," vol. i. p. 5, note.
Ibid. vol. i. p. 2.

Ibid. vol. ii. p. 12.
§ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 4.

no longer; ergo, He is no longer vouchsafed. How rosy the hue with which the good bishop invested the prevailing temper of mankind toward the religion of Jesus in modern days, let this extract show :—

"The nature and genius of the gospel were so averse to all the religious institutions of the world, that the whole strength of human prejudices was set in opposition to it. To overcome the obstinacy and violence of these prejudices, nothing less than the power of the Holy One was sufficient. He did the work of man's conversion, and reconciled an unbelieving world to God. At present, whatever there may be remaining of the bias of prejudice it draws the other way." *

Most impotent and unscriptural conclusion! Paul, what sayest thou? "The carnal mind is enmity against God," Rom. viii. 7. Nay-that cannot be respectable authorities now say, "At present the bias of prejudice draws the other way." "Alienated from the life of God, by the ignorance that is in them, through the blindness of their hearts." Nay, not so, surely, "for at present the bias of prejudice draws the other way." And James, what sayest thou?"The friendship of the world is enmity with God; a friend of the world is the enemy of God." This must surely be some mistake; for a learned authority affirms, that "at present the bias of prejudice draws the other way." And John, what sayest thou?"Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Happy we, who are assured that hate to the church is metamorphosed into a totally different feeling; that love to the world, which is the rejection of God, has passed away; and that "at present the bias of prejudice draws the other

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* Warburton's "Doctrine of Grace," vol. ii. p. 3.

way!" And Peter, what sayest thou? "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." Ah, Peter, well was it to try and console the suffering brethren in those days; at present, in the sunshine of universal approval, we can sing, "The bias of prejudice draws the other way." And, Lord of all power and might, what sayest thou?—thou that art the Amen, the faithful and true Witness: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "I came not to send peace, but a sword." More enlightened than the Sovereign of this dispensation, nous avons changé tout cela-" at present the bias of prejudice draws the other way." It is a prize in the lottery of general estimation to be a professor of serious religion; at least so the bishop wills it, in that sentence on which we have been ringing the changes, as unevangelical in its sentiment, as contradicted by fact. Witness the slanders poured upon the sainted head of Wesley, and the ten thousand entries in his Journal that speak of persecution, and outrage, in some cases almost unto death. Witness the incompatibility of his and Whitefield's erratic but earnest labours, with the continued favour of the authorities of their church.

Witness it, thou bloody scaffold on Tower-hill, and charred stake of Smithfield, if the prejudice against vital religion has passed away. Witness it, ye wars of the Reformation, ye dungeons and depopulated towns of France, ye blood-stained valleys of Savoy.

Witness the friendships it has cooled, the ties it has broken, the hearts it has severed, the complacent smiles it has darkened into frowns, the charities of domestic

life it has extinguished, the arms with which it has furnished husband against wife, and parent against child in all ages, our own no less than the past; the citizens it has robbed of their rights, the servants of their bread, the Christians of their grave. Witness it, hoary chronicles of bygone centuries; witness it, the course of concurrent events; witness it, pillory and outrage of Leighton, Penry, and Bastwick, and others, whose names are written in heaven; witness it dungeon, and unrighteous trial of Penn and Fox, of Baxter and Bunyan.

Witness it, ye more than two thousand spiritual heroes, who took no counsel with flesh and blood, when the world's hostility left ye no choice but to deny self or deny your Master; witness it, ye pilgrim fathers, who sought sanctuary in the wilderness, "from unreasonable and wicked men;" witness it, thou glorious company of the apostles, thou noble army of martyrs-the holy church throughout all the world—that never had known it otherwise; witness it, ye never-dying stars, that looked in sadness upon the promptings of Cain's and Ishmael's and Esau's hate, that as it was, so is it now, and thus must it ever be, the seed of the bondwoman must needs persecute the seed of the free; witness it, ye pleasant winds, if ever ye bore one song of praise to heaven, that was not saddened by the impiety of the blasphemer, the curse of the gainsayer; witness it, thou body of Christ upon earth, in thy present history, thy scanty numbers, thy narrow resources, thy crippled influence and power. Yet "the bias of prejudice" is in thy favour. Alas! we lack the proof that it is so. Where are thy kings and queens, and mighty men, and chief captains,

thy judges, thy magistrates, and thy nobles, donning thy livery, and doing thy bidding, and blessing thy name, and bowing the reverent knee? Ay witness, thou despised and impoverished religion of the Crucified, in all-convincing tones, and with the irresistible argument of facts, that he who stated the bias of popular favour to be now with thee, spoke what he did not know, and testified what he had not seen; misread facts, misunderstood human hearts, and wholly misconceived of thee; for, despite his asseveration, it is still as true as ever, that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." 1 Cor. i. 26-28. But our theological systems start evidently from different poles, and if they meet, can only clash, so long as Warburton gravely maintains, that the Spirit's abiding with us for ever is "verified by the sure deposit of the Spirit of Truth in sacred Scripture:" and so long as he quarrels with the fanatics, because they seek spiritualization, "as if that rule [of faith] was so obscure as to need the further assistance of the Holy Spirit to explain his own meaning; or so imperfect, as to need a new inspiration to supply its wants.'

Having now dealt with the truths that bear upon personal religion and individual subjection to the truth, as well as the means whereby this was to be effected -the direct agency of the Divine Spirit-things insisted upon with untiring energy by John Wesley,

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