66 gave him utterance;" who "felt the bleffed "Spirit daily filling his foul and body, as plainly as he felt the air which he breathed, or the food which he ate " who "daily ex"perienced the outgoing and incoming of the ❝ blessed Spirit in the fanctuary of his heart;" who felt the great God in a glorious manner filling and overshadowing his foul," and was often filled with the whole Godhead, with "the fulness of God":"-it was his frank and voluntary confeffion, that "imagination had "mixed itself with his work;" that "by fe"veral of his affertions on thefe topics he had "given too much occafion for reflection;" that "his mistakes had been too many, and his blunders too frequent, to make him fet up for infallibility n" "I came foon into the "world," he fays; "I have carried high fail, "whilft running through a whole torrent of "popularity and contempt; and by this means "have fometimes been in danger of overfet"ting." "I know too much of the devices of "Satan, and the defperate wickedness and deceitfulness of my own heart, not to be fen m See Account of God's Dealings with the Rev. G. Whitefield, fect. 3. Whitefield's Works, vol. i. p. 315, 458, 195, 205, 166, 195, 228, 237, 466. Lavington ou Enthufiafm, part i. p. 50, 61, 66, 67, 54, 51. Whitefield's Remarks on a Pamphlet, entitled, The Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. p. 43, 33, 40. fible, that I am a man of like paffions with "others; and confequently may have mistaken nature for grace, imagination for revelation, " and the fire of my own temper for the pure "and facred flame of holy zeal which cometh from God's altar." "Alas! alas! in how "many things have I judged and acted wrong! "I have been too rash and hafty in giving "characters both of places and perfons! I have too much made impreffions, without the written word, my rule of acting. Being fond of Scripture language, I have often ufed a ftyle too apoftolical, and at the fame time I have been too bitter in my zeal. Wild-fire has been mixed with it; and I find "I have frequently written and spoken too much "in my own Spirit, when I thought I was writ แ ing and speaking intirely by the affiftance of "the Spirit of God." That one, who had made fuch an open and unequivocal avowal of his delufions, should have nevertheless perfevered in fetting up his -own inward feelings as the criterion of spiritual -communications, must excite our astonishment, if it be true that he did perfevere in afferting his claim to fuch communications upon the fame ground and in fimilar language, is a fact, Works, vol. iv. p. 127. the evidence of which we have not far to feek: and it may warn us of the danger of encou raging that enthusiastic temper, which, at the very inftant that it may flatter itself with the belief, that it is correcting its former extrava gancies, is adminiftering fresh materials to its rapacious appetite, and feeding itself with new delufions. Liable then as we all are to be deluded, the man who feels in himself thofe inward motions, which he is willing to be perfuaded are the workings of the Holy Spirit, would do well to be cautious how he inconfiderately gives way to the evidence of his feelings; inftead of trying, by a furer teft, whether they may not be afcribed to the paffions or infirmities of his nature, or to the fuggeftions of his crafty enemy the devil, and not to the gracious influence of the Spirit of God. 2. Nor, again, has fuch a man reasonable cause for expecting to be believed by others, even if he admit his own inward feelings for fufficient evidence to himfelf. * Monftrare 66 nequeo, fentio tantum," is an appeal, which as every man, as well as Whitefield, may arbitrarily advance, fo no man can reafonably require to be admitted. For if the appeal be once admitted, when is ? Works, vol. iv. p. 166. it to be rejected? if the claim be once allowed, when is it to be denied? if we once concede our affent to the unfupported teftimony of him, who arrogates to himself the fanction of the Spirit, when are we confiftently to withhold it? The pretensions of one man, abstractedly confidered, have as fair a demand upon our credit as thofe of another: and we must not only believe, that the Founders of Methodifm were acting under this divine influence, becaufe they affirm it, when they were belieing their vows of ordination, by " bringing their "own dreams and phantafies into the Church'," and fowing in it diffenfions, inftead of promot ing quietnefs and peace; by violating the ecclefiaftical order of the realm, and by renounce ing the authority of thofe, to whom were committed the charge and government over them, each claiming to himself an apoftolical commiffion, and each accufing the other of preaching a new gofpel; and that their followers were acting under the impulfe of the fame heavenly monitor, because they also affirm it, when their very fuperiors pronounced them to be under the full dominion of an heated imagination, or of the spirit of pride and of lies but we must for the fame reafon admit, as divine infpirations, thofe manifold T Homilies, p. 395.. extravagancies, which at various times have thrown difgrace on the profeffion of the Gofpel, and brought the very operations of the Holy Spirit into queftion; and must refer to the fame facred, pure, and unpolluted fource the fanciful pretenfions, which fanctify the ritual of the Papifts, and have canonized the faints of the Romish calendar'; the pretenfions of the Herefiarch Manichæus to illuminations from the Paraclete; the vain and arrogant prefumption of Montanus"; the rapturous vifions of the Meffalians*; the mystic conceits of Molinos, the ecstafies of Loyola, the illuminations of Bourignon, the delirious dreams of Swedenborg, the ignorant fanaticism of Fox, and the ravings of Southcott and of Brothers; the profligacy and feditious enormities of Hacket the English, and Boccold the German', impoftor; the gloomy yet ardent bigotry, which inftigated Ravaillac and Felton to acts of affaffination; the cool hypocrify, which veiled the judicial murder committed by Crom • See Homily for Whit-Sunday, part 2. Jortin's Remarks, vol. ii. p. 114. • Lavington on Enthusiasm, part i. Introd. * Mofheim, Cent. iv. part ii. c. 24. See Ridley's Sermons on the Holy Ghoft, Serm. iv. ▾ Mosheim, Cent. xvii. fect. ii. part 1, 2. - Collier's Ecclefiaftical History, part ii. b. 7. Mofheim, Cent. xvi, fect. iii. part ii. ç, 3. |