To what other principle than that of private judgment, are we to ascribe the rise and rapid progress, and present extensive preva lence of the doctrine of the Methodists? "Going into a society in Aldersgate-street," says Wesley, describing the generation of this doctrine in his mind," whilst a person was reading Luther's preface to the Romans, about a quarter before nine, (on the 24th of May, 1739,) I felt my heart strangely warmed: I felt I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Here we have the whole faith of the Methodists, which avowedly consists in the belief of "an instantaneous illapse of the Spirit into the soul, by which the person thus favoured is convinced of his justification and salvation." This illapse they considered to take place, without reference to the merits or demerits of the elect; sin was no hindrance, virtue no invitation to it. The consequences of such a principle as this are obvious, and it must be admitted, that they were consistently drawn out by the Hon. Richard Hill, who maintained, that "even adultery and murder do not hurt the pleasant children, but rather work for their good." "God sees no sin in believers," he continues, "whatever sin they commit. My sins might displease God; my person is always acceptable to him. Though I should outsin Manasses, I should not be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, murders, and incests, he can address me with,-Thou art all fair my love, my undefiled, there is no spot in thee." "It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen, to distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the person. Though I blame those who say, let us sin that grace may abound; yet adultery, incest, and murder, shall, upon the whole, make me holier on earth, and merrier in heaven i"

Was it not from the Lutheran principle of private judgment, that the Antinomians also sprung, a sect who hold that the faithful are bound by no law, either of God or man; and that good works of every kind are useless to salvation? Luther's convivial companion, Amsdorf, went rather farther than this, for he main-. tained, that good works were not merely useless, but actual impediments to salvation. Eaton, a Puritan, in his "Honeycomb of Justification," says, " Believers ought not to mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was committed." Thus we may clearly understand the force of Tertullian's observation :-" It is natural for error to be ever-changing; the disciples have the same right in this matter that their masters had."

Most, if not all of the vagaries which we have enumerated, are still prevalent amongst us in some shape or other; and to these we are every day adding some new discovery or new interpretation of Scripture, each more absurd than its predecessor. Thus to the question," What must I do to be saved?" we have from the Reverend Legh Richmond the following reply:

"Salvation is wholly of faith, from first to last. This is the grand discriminating principle between true scriptural, evangelical religion, and all mere imitations or assumptions of that title. Our paradox is, that 'weakness is strength.' The soul that by Faith, through Grace, is saved without works, obtains an inward principle of love, which must work, cannot but work, and actually does work. The order is thus: First, God loved us; secondly, thence we obtain faith to trust him; thirdly, we are thus saved; fourthly, we therefore love him who first loved us; fifthly, this love produces good thoughts, words, and works, as the fruits, not the root, of our salvation. Thus is He the author and finisher of our faith, and the author of salvation to all them that obey him. He has promised to all, as well as to David, to perfect the thing which concerneth his people Whom he loveth, he loveth unto the end; trust him, therefore, evermore. Such is the Christian's doctrinal, practical, and experimental creed," Memoirs of the Rev. Legh Richmond, pp. 429, 430.

It follows from this, that God is the author of evil; for an evil it is, of the first magnitude, not to be saved. If it be true, that faith arises in our minds from the love which he bears us, it is a necessary consequence, that unless he loves us, we can have no faith. Now, it depends upon his will, whether he loves us or not; if he does not love us, we cannot be saved; and therefore, his willing not to love us, is to decree our damnation. Another absurdity follows from this doctrine. He who once possesses faith, must of necessity be saved, according to Mr Richmond, for it is an inward principle, as he explains it, which must work for our salvation. He who possesses the faith once, therefore, cannot help being saved, even though he were the most profligate of all sinners.

This doctrine is also maintained by Erskine in his "Freeness of the Gospel," in which he lays it down as a proposition, that " a sense of pardon or justification belongs to those who believe the testimony." Here is a theologue, who confounds pardon, by which we can understand only an act of mercy, with justification, which implies a degree of merit that does not stand in need of indulgence. And yet this same writer attaches no idea of merit to faith, or indeed to any other act of mind that expresses its acceptance of the Gospel; and he admits that "a man may be thoroughly and for ever miserable, although he has this pardon," or, in other words, this justification, from which it would follow, that the man who has been forgiven by the Deity, or who has been justified in his sight may be "for ever miserable!" The doctrine of the Hon. Richard Hill can hardly be said to exceed this in absurdity and impiety.

Again, what a parcel of nonsense is emitted from the press and the pulpits, from time to time, concerning the Millennium! The history of the doctrine connected with this subject has been very clearly and satisfactorily traced by the Rev. Michael Russell, of the Episcopal congregation at Leith, in a series of discourses which were published a year or two ago. The original tradition, common alike to Pagans, Jews, and Christians, was, that the earth, as well as the moral and religious state of its inhabitants, was to

undergo a great change at the end of six thousand years. This idea is found more or less clearly expressed in most of the Rabbinical commentaries upon the Old Testament. The number of six thousand was fixed upon by the Cabalists, because, in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which, when used as a numeral, denotes a thousand, happens to occur six times. The six days which are said to have been employed by the Almighty in creating the world, are also looked upon by the same divines as confirming this idea; each day being emblematic of one thousand years, and it was inferred, that upon the completion of this period there would succeed a sabbath a millennium of corresponding length, of rest, and of universal happiness.

As a matter of curiosity, it is worth observing, that this tradition makes its appearance in the Sibylline oracles, and other very ancient poetical and philosophic writings. Plato quotes it from Orpheus, and Plutarch, upon the authority of Theopompus, ascribes it to the Persian Magi. Porphyry relates that Pythagoras had brought from foreign lands the opinion, that, "after fixed cycles or periods of time, there will be a repetition of every thing which has formerly existed. The same things that have been will be again, and nothing entirely new is called into being." Seneca attributes to Eastern authors the dogma that the present world shall be destroyed by fire; and Strabo states that a similar tradition had come down from the Druidical priests and Etrurian soothsayers-a tradition which Sophocles has embodied in half-a-dozen of his magnificent lines. Nor is it an idea altogether new to scientific men, that the orb which we inhabit, like ourselves, might grow old, and stand in need of renovation; "that there were certain indications of an established order in physical events, which, in due course, would restore the pristine vigour of the elements, and bring back to nature the harmony which, it was generally imagined, had been lost or interrupted. The number seven was associated in the minds of ancient sages, with ideas of a sacred and emblematical character; and on this ground it was expected, that when six thousand years of toil and disorder should have passed away, the seventh millennium would usher in a happier series of events, re-establish the equilibrium of the heavenly bodies, invest our earth with a more genial atmosphere, renew in its soil the original powers of fertility, and cover its surface with scenes of imperishable beauty and delight."* Without going farther into the authorities upon this matter, we may mention, that amongst the primitive Christians and Fathers of the Church, the belief in a millennium was very prevalent, and that they were even generally persuaded, that the sixth period of a thousand years was so far advanced, as to bring them within a very

* Russell, pp. 41. 42.

few hundred years of the commencement of the seventh. The subject was altogether lost sight of after the fifth century, and was not revived until the human mind was again set a dreaming by the precious influence of the reformation. The Millennarians then were more abundant than ever; but, as usual, they divided amongst themselves, and became either Literalists with Mede, or Allegorists with Whitby. The former held that, during the Millennium, the Redeemer would appear once more on earth in a glorious and evident manner, but without holding converse with mankind. This is not, however, quite consonant with the view which the Rev. E. Irving has taken of the matter in his "Preliminary Discourse to the Translation of Ben Ezra." We doubt if the reader can understand the ebullition of words which this raving mountebank has poured forth upon the subject; but they deserve to be quoted, as a curious indication of the thousand and one absurdities which have followed, as a natural consequence, from the establishment of the right of private judgment."

"These judgments upon the Gentile nations and all the earth, he will finish by his own personal appearance in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and obey not the Gospel; raising those who sleep in Jesus, and changing those of the Gentile Church who still abide in life; and preserving the mourning Jewish Church, as Goshen was preserved in the plagues of Egypt: And when the promised land shall have been cleared of all intruders, and they themselves by suffering perfected for the habitation of it, he shall lead them into it with a mighty and outstretched arm; and sit upon the throne of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness; and send forth the law from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and rule among the nations, and be the Prince of universal peace; using, in this judgment and government of the earth, his risen saints, who will be his ministers, to execute whatever his pleasure is. And thus Satan, being cast out, and the Prince of Light, and the Heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of his elect Church, being present, the Jerusalem on earth, with the house of Jacob and all the nations, shall enjoy that fulness of peace and joy, that millennial reign of righteousness, for which we all hope, and pray, and diligently labour. This material city, I say, in which the saints shall dwell, and from which they shall go forth on their errands, terrestrial or celestial, shall bring to the matter of the earth that same assurance of an unchangeable beauty yet to be, as the pure body of Christ, that rose to the eternal throne, doth bring at this moment to my body, and to the body of the Church now living, or mouldering in the grave. At the coming of the Lord there will be such a purification of the earth by fire, and amelioration of its condition by other means, known, perhaps, to God only, as shall realize the blessedness of that Millennial kingdom, whereof some part of the delineation is set down above. We interpret the conflagration of the earth to be its purification or baptism with fire, and not its annihilation. We believe that our Lord shall reign a certain limited time with his enemies under his feet, that is, in a state of subjection; and afterwards, that he shall reign for ever with his enemies under the dominion of the second death; that there will be a period of Satan's imprisonment, and of Death's

subjugation, and of the earth's protection, government, and blessedness, in despite of all the powers of darkness; and that after this there will be an eternity of Satan's second death, and Death's second death, and the second death of all wicked men and wicked angels, and their fruits of wickedness; which shall be to the earth an eternity of infallible blessedness, of God's immediate presence, of the concentration of his love, of the peculiar abode and government of his Son. And that this immortal earth for ever, and the redeemed saints inheriting for ever their inheritance that fadeth not away, and the Son of God their king, united to human nature for ever, shall be for ever the monument of God's love and mercy to believing sinners. But if these theorists destroy the earth, or make of it their hell, for neither of which ideas can I find a single passage in Scripture, and against them a thousand; if they carry off the race of the redeemed men to mingle with, and be lost among the countless myriads of the unfallen. angels, the whole end of redemption is lost. And the manhood of Christ is lost. He is not God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever. And our honour to have all put under our feet is lost; and the crowning truth of the whole mystery is lost, which is that God's power and love is able from the dust of the ground to create a substance worthy of being incorporated with his own eternal essence, and that of the children of sin and frailty his redeeming Word and regenerating Spirit can make the kings and the priests of the universe. For I have no idea that, after the purification and exaltation of this earth, those who passed through Christ's trials and attained unto his glory, shall dwell above in isolated blessedness, or be seen from afar like a solitary star in the spangled heavens; but do conceive that we shall be as it were the heralds of faithfulness, carrying in our persons both the lesson and the example wherever we go; ministering to all his creatures the profound mysteries of God's love to his faithful children, judging angels, ruling principalities and powers, and having all things under our feet, partakers of the prophetic, priestly, and kingly throne of Christ. This I conceive to be the mystery of the God-man, which is not a phenomenon or appearance made to the earth only, but is a reality, a substantial union of the two natures which cannot be hidden, but must be known to all creatures in and under heaven. And if this be the orthodox doctrine of Christ's humanity, who can doubt that, under Christ, creatures of the same glorified humanity may be stewards of that universal kingdom, and that the Saints shall reign upon the earth where Christ for ever reigneth, and from that, as the court and centre of their government, exercise under their king universal government to the end of the world. Why may it not be that the Son may administer the kingdom of all the universe, by that race of kings and priests whom he hath brought through the same tribulations through which he passed himself? If angels be my ministers in this my humiliation, what in my exaltation may I not hope to become? The Lord knows I am not ambitious of these dignities, and that I write not these things in any ambitious mood. But to justify power and his grace which hath already made me, a worm, to become a spiritual member of his eternal Son."

his

Irving, then, it seems, is of opinion, that the Millennium will be the commencement of his own reign upon earth; that angels are to be his ministers, nay, that he is to be the judge of angels, to rule over principalities and powers, to have all things under his feet, and to