.. 
ee 
METHODISM INSPECTED. 
‘We shall not attempt to enter into the 
merits of this controversy. Mr. Vidler 
has reason on his side, though not all 
the scriptures which he has pressed into 
his service. We do not mean by this to 
imsinuate, that the doctrine of eternal 
punishment is a doctrine of the scrip- 
tures, but that inferences against it are 
here drawn from passages oki belong 
to a very different subject. We have 
long been of opinion that the greatest 
immediate aid that Universalists can 
derive from scripture is, the absence of 
every thing adverse to their opinion, and 
that it is in vain for them to look for any 
positive evidence in their favour. The 
New Testament, wherever it has any 
reference to the future state of the 
wicked, does not contradict their hypo- 
thesis; and all that it teaches of the 
character of God, and of his moral 
overnment, is decisive in its support. 
“hese letters are written with great 
ability, and what is better, with a truly 
Tiberal and christian spirit. Even they, 
_ who might perhaps question the sound- 
ness of his principles, would, we think, 
be compelled to acknowledge that in 
‘one, at least, of the virtues of the gos- 
oy the writer is no mean proficient: 
can return good for evil, and, when 
_ reviled, withhold himself from reviling 
again. 
The temper of those with whom Mr. 
Vidler has chiefly to contend, will be 
seen from the following passage. 
«« Tit is a maxim pres generally allowed 
among Calvinist ehurehes, that Error is 
15% 
worse than vice. This maxim was publicly 
avowed at the association of the particular 
Baptist churches at Chatham in Kent, 1793. 
At that assembly I was publicly excluded 
from their communion for believing and 
avowing the doctrine of the restitution of all 
things. The moderator, when he had pro- 
nounced the sentence of excision, added, «I 
am constrained to say, that your moral con- 
duct has been such as would do honour to 
a much better cause than that in which you 
-are engaged.’ And the minister who preached 
on the occasion to a very crowded audience, 
said, ‘ The universal doctrine is an heresy, 
and every one who holds it is an heretie ; 
not that every heretic is a wicked man; for 
heretics are often the holiest of men; but 
heresy is more dangerous than vice; for if a 
wicked man is sound in the faith, there is 
some hope of him; such are often recovered ; 
but as for heretics, they are very seldom re- 
covered from their errors..—There were near 
thirty Calvinist ministers of different deno- 
minations present, and only one of them 
disavowed the sentiment that was so publicly 
taught. Ihave from that time to this been 
treated with the utmost contempt by many 
nominal Christians of loose characters, who 
have been taught ‘that the holiest of men 
may be heretics, and that heresy, though 
attended with holiness, is worse than vice!!! 
The enormity of this maxim appears in its 
full view when it is recollected, that by error 
and heresy we are not to understand a depar- 
ture from Christianity, but a departure from 
Calvinism.” 
Whilst such is the conduct of men 
who profess to be christians, who can 
wonder that the name of Christ is still 
“a stone of stumbling, and a rock of 
offence?” 
Art. XXI. Methodism Inspected. Part I. With an Appendix, on the Evidences of 
@ State of Salvation. By Witviam Hates, D.D. Rector of Killesandra. 
_ | pp. 94. 
_ IT is much to be lamented that per- 
sons who profess so much zeal for reli- 
gion, and who devote themselves so 
Seadably to the reformation of that class 
of the community, which is considered 
by the generality of teachers'as below 
their notice, should be so much under 
the influence of fanaticism, as essentially 
to injure the cause they appear desirous 
of serving; and while they lessen the 
‘quantity of moral evil, do ali in their 
ower to render the gospel, and the 
fession of it, contemptible in the eyes 
the sceptic and the unbeliever. ‘The 
little treatise before us, was composed 
“im consequence of the extravagant and 
-indecorous conduct of the methodist 
“Missionaries, in that part of Ireland in 
3vo. 
which the author resides. The censure 
which is here passed upon them, with a 
spirit becoming a christian minister, is 
no other than they most justly deserve; 
and if their minds were open to con- 
viction, they might here learn how un- 
scriptural are their doctrines of com- 
plete freedom from sin, experimental 
freedom of divine favour, and positive 
assurance of forgiveness. They might 
also be taught the folly of expecting 
sudden conversions, and the indecency 
of those violent agitations of body which 
they encourage the deluded people to 
exhibit. 
The author has selected from some of 
Mr. Wesley’s works, particularly from 
a letter written to Maxfield; one of his 
