of our Colonists, both in the Islands and on the Continent, against the establishment of Epifcopacy! That perfons of all ranks, from Quebec down to the two Floridas, are at this time prejudiced and more than prejudiced against it, is very notorious; but how will the very thought of the introduction of Lords Bishops even make them fhudder, if their Lordships fhould think proper to countenance the expulfion of fuch worthy and truly religious Students, whilst those who have no religion at all perhaps, may not only meet with countenance, but approbation and applaufe?

Befides, if such proceedings fhould be continued, (which God forbid) what little credit may we fuppose will hereafter be given to future UniversityTeftimonials, namely, that the bearers of them have behaved ftudiously, foberly, and PIOUSLY; and how must we in time be put under a difagreeable neceffity of having a new, or at least altering fome part of our prefent most excellent ordination-office? As it now ftands, one of the Questions proposed to every candidate for Holy Orders runs thus: "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghoft?" But if all Students are to be expelled that fing Hymns, pray extempore, attend upon, or expound a verse now and then in a religious church of England Society, fhould it not rather, Reverend SIR, be worded thus, namely, "Do you truft that ye are NOT inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you the office and adminiftration of the church?"

You will excufe this freedom, Reverend SIR,

Agitur de vitâ et fanguine turni.

Love

Love to GOD, love to mankind in general, and love to that Univerfity, that alma mater where I had the. honour of being educated, and, what is infinitely. more, where I had, the happiness of receiving the witness of the Spirit of God in my heart, altogether constrain me.

The news of these young mens expulfion hath made, and will make the ears of all that have heard, or fhall hear of it, to tingle: and therefore if fome. do not speak, and ufe great plainnefs of fpeech too, the very ftones would, as it were, cry out against us. In respect to myself, Reverend SIR, I hope, in taking the freedom of troubling you with this, I do not justly incurr the cenfure of acting as a busybody in other mens matters. For, whatever other pretences may be made, fuch as difqualification in respect to learning, age, being of trades, &c. &c. &c. (Nuga tricaque calenda) it is notorious and obvious to all intelligent perfons, that the grand caufe of these young mens expulfion was this, namely, that they were either real or reputed METHODISTS. An honour this indeed unwittingly put on Methodists, whoever or whatever they be, fince scarce any nowa-days can pray extempore, fing Hymns, go to Church or Meeting, and abound in other acts of Devotion, but they must be immediately dubb'd Methodists-I fay, dubb'd Methodists; for it is not a name given to them by themselves, but was imposed on them by fome of their fellow Students and Cotemporaries in the University.

;

I take it for granted, Reverend SIR, that you need not be apprized that I am one of these Methodists and bleffed be GOD I have had the honour of being one of them for about thirty-five years. If this is to be vile, may I be more vile! If this be my fhame, upon the most mature and serious reflection I really' glory in it. But then left any more innocent Youths fhould hereafter fuffer barely for the imputation of a nick-name, give me leave fimply and honestly to inform you, Reverend SIR, and through you the whole Univerfity, what not barely a reputed, but a real Methodist is :-" He is one of those whom God' hath chofen in CHRIST out of mankind to bring them by CHRIST to everlasting falvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore they, which be endued with fo excellent a benefit of GOD, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due feason they, through grace, obey the calling: they be justified freely they be made the fons of GOD by adoption: they be made like the image of his only begotten fon JESUS CHRIST: they walk. religioufly in good works: and at length, by GOD'S mercy, they attain everlasting felicity." This is the true portraiture of a Methodist, drawn at full length, drawn to the very life, and that too not by an ignorant modern dauber, but by thofe good old skilful fcriptural limners, CRANMER, LATIMER, RIDLEY, in the xviith Article of our Church; an Article that deférves to be written in Letters of gold; and yet, for holding of this very Article in its litteral grammatical fenfe, agreeable to his fubfcription at the time of matriculation, one of these young Students, as we

have

*སྙ

have been informed, was expelled. If our informa tion be wrong in this or any other refpect, the nation may foon be fet right by an authentic publication of the whole judicial proceedings.

If you fhould defire, Reverend SIR, a definition of 'Methodifm itfelf, as well as of a Methodist, you may eafily be gratified-It is no more nor less than faith working by love-A holy dying, to the glory of GoD

rality, founded upon the love

method of living and It is an univerfal moof GOD fhed abroad

in the heart by the Holy Ghoft: or, to keep to the

exact terms made ufe of in the laft Collect of our excellent Liturgy, it is the grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, the love of GoD, and the fellowship of the HOLY GHOST; which we cannot go to church or chapel on Sundays, Holidays, or other common days, without praying, not that it may be driven from, but be with us all evermore.

If this be Enthufiafm, the true Methodists confefs themselves to be Enthufiafts.. But then, they humbly apprehend, that they cannot with any just propriety of speech be termed modern Enthufiafts; for it is an Enthusiasm which our bleffed LORD, in that prayer which he put up when He was about to take his farewel of his Difciples, and which is a pattern of that all-prevailing Interceffion which He is now making at the right hand of God, most earnestly infifts upon, and demands that all his difciples may be poffeffed of: "Father, faid he, I will that thofe whom thou haft given me, may be with me where I am; that they may be one with me, even as thou, O Father, and I are one I in them, and they in me, that they all may be made perfect in one." An Enthufiafm with which

B 3

which Peter and John were fired, when "Annas the high-prieft, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the highpriest, seeing their boldness, and perceiving that they were unlearned and ignorant men, marvelled, and took knowledge of them that they had been with JESUS." An Enthufiafm with which the ProtoMartyr Stephen was filled, when he cried, "Ye ftiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always refift the Holy Ghoft." An Enthufiafm which Ignatius, fuppofed by fome to be one of those little children which the Lord JESUS took up in his arms, was abforbed in, when he ftiles himself a Bearer of God; and for witnefling of which good confeffion, in order to cure him of this Enthusiasm, was ordered by Trajan, the Roman Emperor, to be thrown to the Lions. An Enthufiafm for which Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, thofe glorious lights of the Reformation, those excellent compilers of our Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies, were burnt alive for, near Baliol college. And to mention but one more too, too recent an example, an Enthufiafm, for being only a little tinctured with which, Six Stu dents, on March 11th, in the Year of our Lord 1768, were publicly expelled in Edmund Hall chapel,

But think you, Reverend SIR, that this is the way to ftop the progrefs of this Enthufiafm? Or rather, may we not imagine that this very act of expulfion will be a means of furthering and promoting its progress far and near? To fpeak my own thoughts, I am fully perfuaded, that if fuch unfcriptural methods of ftopping this Enthufiafm be pur

fued