212 
very parents, as for the rejected, the ves- 
sels of dishonour, the children of wrath, 
who are to lie howling, while they them- 
selves shall be ministering angels. They 
humble themselves to each other that 
they may be exalted, baiting with self- 
accusation for flattery, each pampering 
the other’s spiritual pride. For a while 
this miserable self-delusion continues 
in full force ; every lucid interval is the 
devil’s work; and the devil hath the 
credit of everythought akin to common 
sense. But when these intervals grow 
longer, and recur more frequent, when 
these thoughts or temptations, as they 
are called, come upon them thick and 
thronging, still they continue the same 
exterior, the same face of formality, the 
same lip-righteousness; the smoke is 
kept up, though the fire hath cooled; 
they have enlisted, and are ashamed to 
desert ; they are fettered by habit, by 
vanity, by interest. 
Their separation of the sexes is even 
more mischievous than all the impure 
precautions of popery. ‘Touch no woman, 
says the conference; be as loving as you 
will, but the custom of the country is no- 
thing to us. Every preacher is charged 
to see that the menamd women sit apart 
in their chapels; they are also to meet 
men and women, the married and the 
single apart. In their bands, sex is se- 
parated from sex, husbands from _bat- 
chelors, and maids from matrons. In 
these societies, each is to confess to all; 
to confess, in tlie strict and popish sense 
of the term, “to speak freely and plain- 
Ty the faults they have committed in 
thought, word, or deed, and the tempta- 
tions they have been exercised with since 
their last meeting.” They are to be 
asked ‘¢ as many andas searching ques- 
tions as can be, concerning their sins 
and temptations. Have you been guil- 
ty of any known sin since our last meet- 
ing? What temptations have you met 
with? How were you delivered? What 
have you thought, said, or done, of 
which you doubt whether it be a sin or 
not?” 
Englishmen, who have happily been 
delivered from the bondage of the Ro- 
mish church, are well aware of the evils 
which inevitably result from auricular 
confession. Our fathers witnessed those 
evils, and bore testimony against them ; 
they bore their testimony against them 
in danger and in suffering, in prison, in 
torments, intheflames; but the confession 
of the catholics is modest and innocent,. 
THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
when compared with that which these 
schismatics have introduced. Of what 
nature it must chiefly be, is evident from 
this separation of man from woman, of 
maid from matron, in the bands, and 
when they are visited ’by the helper, the 
priest, the father confessor. We must 
touch lightly on this abominable subject. 
Is it possible, that they who devised this 
confession, could be ignorant of its 
consequences? Every incipient feeling, 
every lighter thought that would have 
past over the maiden’s mind and been 
forgotten, is to be remarked and remem- 
bered, that it may be renewed, and ri- 
vetted and durnt-in to the heart by the 
pain and shame of confession! of con- 
fession, not to one whom, from his age 
and character, she has ever from her in- 
fancy been taught to regard with fa- 
therly, or more than fatherly reverence, 
and who, by the holiest oaths, and the 
severest penalties, is bound to inviolable 
secrecy, but to companions of her own 
sex and age, who will make it their tea- 
table talk ; and each of whom is, by a 
similar confession, to renew and sear 
her shame! Either from natural and 
sacred modesty, the thought will be con- 
cealed, and made more intense by the 
imagined sinfulness of that concealment; 
or it will be confessed, and that action 
will strengthen the idea, and the idea 
will recur more frequently, because it is 
thus strengthened; and thus confession 
will be again and again required, till a 
sinful pleasure be at length extracted 
from confession itself, the atonement 
will partake of the nature of the sin, 
all modesty and all shame be utterly 
destroyed. 
We have now detailed the History of 
Methodism, explained its organization, 
and exposed its tendency. Whoever 
reasons and understands the nature of © 
the human mind, will perceive that it is 
a system which must necessarily darken 
the understanding, deaden the moral 
feeling, and defile the imagination ; its 
ultimate object is to destroy the church 
establishment. No, say they, we would 
not destroy it, we are no enemies to the — 
Neither was the Pre- 
establishment ! 
tender an enemy to the throne of Great 
Britain, he had no design to destroy it, 
all that he meant was to eject the reign- 
ing prince, and seat himself in his stead. 
Lhe church of England is in danger; and — 
her clergy will be ousted from their be- 
nefices, unless some effectual remedy be 
speedily applied. The Arminian me-— 
