Sects and Professions in Religion are numerous and successive General Effect of false Zeal - Deists Fanatical Idea of Church Reformers - The Church of Rome - BaptistsSwedenborgians Universalists - Jews. Methodists of two Kinds; Calvinistic and Arminian. The Preaching of a Calvinistic Enthusiast-His Contempt of Learning — Dislike to sound Morality: why— His Idea of Conversion His Success and Pretensions to Humility. The Arminian Teacher of the older Flock - Their Notions of the Operations and Power of Satan - Description of his Devices Their Opinion of regular Ministers - Comparison of these with the Preacher himself A Rebuke to his Hearers; introduces a Description of the powerful Effects of the Word in the early and awakening Days of Methodism. 75 THE BOROUGH. LETTER IV. SECTS AND PROFESSIONS IN RELIGION. "SECTS in Religion?"—Yes, of every race And you might ask, "how think we for the year?" And with much art exhibit and persuade. (1) ["The fact is curious in the history of trade, and little known, tha the practice of travelling about the country to solicit orders for goods began among the Quakers, as an incidental consequence of the life led by their errant-preachers: Francis Bugg, of unsavoury name, tells us this. We no sooner had our liberty,' he says,' but all our London preachers spread themselves, like locusts, all over England and Wales. Some went east, some west, yea, north and south; and being generally tradesmen, we not only got our quarters free, our horses free and well maintained in our travels; a silver watch here, a beaver there, a piece of hair-camblet, and sometimes other things; but, moreover, we got into great trades; and, by spreading ourselves in the country, into great acquaintance, and thereby received orders of the best of the country tradesmen for parcels, whilst the Protestant tradesmen in London, who had not this advantage, stood still Minds are for Sects of various kinds decreed, Are quick and stagnant; have their calms and storms; Opposed to these we have a prouder kind, and in their shops had little to do, whilst we filled our coffers. Witness Thomas Greene, whose wife would scarce suffer him at home, she being willing (according to the proverb), to make hay whilst the sun shines. Thomas died worth, as is said, six or eight thousand pounds, who was a poor mason when he set up for a preaching Quaker.""- SOUTHEY.] And take their transient, cool, contemptuous view, Of that which must be tried, and doubtless may be true. Friends of our Faith we have, whom doubts like these And keen remarks, and bold objections please; They grant such doubts have weaker minds oppress'd, Till sound conviction gave the troubled rest. 66 "But still," they cry, "let none their censures spare, They but confirm the glorious hopes we share; "From doubt, disdain, derision, scorn, and lies "With five-fold triumph sacred Truth shall rise." Yes! I allow, so Truth shall stand at last, And gain fresh glory by the conflict past:As Solway-Moss (a barren mass and cold, Death to the seed, and poison to the fold), The smiling plain and fertile vale o'erlaid, Choked the green sod, and kill'd the springing blade; That, changed by culture, may in time be seen, Enrich'd by golden grain, and pasture green; And these fair acres rented and enjoy'd May those excel by Solway-Moss destroy'd. (') (1) ["Solway-Moss is a flat area, about seven miles in circumference. The substance of it is a gross fluid, composed of mud and the putrid fibres of heath, diluted by internal springs, which arise in every part. The surface is a dry crust, covered with moss and rushes, offering a fair appearance over an unsound bottom. On the south, the Moss is bounded by a cultivated plain, which declines gently through the space of a mile to the river Esk. This plain is lower than the moss, being separated from it by a breastwork, formed by digging peat, which makes an irregular, though perpendicular, line of low black boundary. -"On the 13th of November, 1771, in a dark tempestuous night, the inhabitants of the plain were alarmed with a dreadful crash; many of them were then in the fields watching their cattle, lest the Esk, which was then rising violently in the storm, should carry them off. In the meantime, the enormous mass of Still must have mourn'd the tenant of the day, For hopes destroy'd, and harvests swept away; To him the gain of future years unknown, The instant grief and suffering were his own: So must I grieve for many a wounded heart, Chill'd by those doubts which bolder minds impart : Truth in the end shall shine divinely clear, But sad the darkness till those times appear; Contests for truth, as wars for freedom, yield Glory and joy to those who gain the field: But still the Christian must in pity sigh For all who suffer, and uncertain die. Here are, who all the Church maintains approve, To make, they add, the Church's glory shine, fluid substance, which had burst from the moss, moved on, spreading itself more and more as it got possession of the plain. Some of the inhabitants, through the terror of the night, could plainly discover it advancing like a moving hill. This was, in fact, the case; for the gush of mud carried before it, through the first two or three hundred yards of its course, a part of the breastwork; which, though low, was yet several feet in perpendicular height; but it soon deposited this solid mass, and became a heavy fluid. One house after another it spread round, filled, and crushed into ruins, just giving time to the terrified inhabitants to escape. Scarcely any thing was saved except their lives; nothing of their furniture, few of their cattle. This dreadful inundation, though the first shock of it was most tremendous, continued still spreading for many weeks, till it covered the whole plain, an area of five hundred acres, and like molten lead poured into a mould, filled all the hollows of it, lying in some parts thirty or forty feet deep, reducing the whole to one level surface.”— GILPIN.J |