LETTER VII. No fleep, no peace, no reft Hell and eternal horror lies, Dark pictures, and resemblances Of things to come, and of the worlds below, Sometimes they curfe, fometimes they pray unto BP. SPRAT. DEAR FRIEND, IT T is perhaps worth remarking, that what the methodists call conviction of fin, being awakened, &c. is often a most dreadful state, and has the very fame effect on such as have lived a very innocent life as it has upon the most notorious of fenders; this conviction (as they call it) is brought about by the preachers heaping all the curfes in the Bible on the heads of the most virtuous as well as moft vicious; for, fay they, he who keepeth the whole law and offendeth but in one point, is as much in a state of damnation, as he that hath broken every one of the commandments, or committed robbery, murder, &c. fo that they pour out every awful denunciation found in the Bible, and many not found there, against all who have not the methodistical faith this they call fhaking the people over the mouth of hell, and they in reality believe, That cruel God, who form'd us in his wrath, And is more happy, the more curs'd we are. He's form'd more perfect, and was made to groan. YOUNG'S Soldier's Trifles. Thus are many who before poffeffed "confciences void of offence towards God and mankind," tricked out of their peace of mind, by the ignorant application of texts of fcripture. Their fears being once fo dreadfully alarmed, they often become infupportable to themselves and all around them; many in this state have put a period to their existence, others run mad, &c. Permit me, Sir, to addrefs you in the words of Alonza,, in Columbus: "Does thy exalted mind, which owns the noblest energies of reafon, does it approve that ftructure reared by mistaken zeal, to glorify the Diety, by the dire facrifice of all his dearcft bleflings?" Oh! would mankind but make great truths their guide, How foon must reafon o'er the world prevail, None would hereafter, then, with groundless fear, SOAME JENYNS's Epistle to Hon. P. YORK. If the above terror of confcience was only to take place in knaves and rafcals, there would be no reason for blaming the methodists on that head; "the wretch deferves the hell he feels." A terrible inftance of this kind happened near London-bridge about two years fince: a perfon in a lucrative branch of bufincis had put unbounded confidence in his head fhopman, and well rewarded him for his fuppofed fidelity. One morning, this young man not coming down ftairs fo foon as ufual, the fevant-maid went up to call him, and found him hanging up to the bed-poft; the had the prefence of mind to cut him down, but he being nearly dead, it was fome days before he perfectly recovered. On his mafter coming to town, he was informed of what had happened to his favourite fhopman; he heard the relation with the utmost astonishment, and took great pains to discover the cause of so fatal a refolution, but to no purpose. However, he endeavoured to reconcile this unhappy man to life, was very tender towards him, and gave him more encouragement than ever; but the more the master did to enD courage and make him happy, the more the poor wretch appeared to be dejected; in this unhappy state of mind he lived about fix months; when, one morning, not appearing at his ufual time, the fervantmaid went to fee if he was well, and found him very weak in bed, a day or two after, his master came to town, and being told of his fituation, went up to see him, and finding him in bed, and apparently very ill, propofed fending for a phyfician, but the poor devil refufed to take any thing, and rejected every affiftance, faying, his time was nearly come. Soon after this the fervant informed her mafter that he would not have the bed inade, and that she had just obferved fome blood on one corner of the fheet. The master then went up stairs again, and by lifting up the bed-clothes found that he had ftabbed himfelf in feveral places, and that in this ftate he had lain three or four days. When innocence and peace are gone, How fad, how teafable to live! SECUNDUS. On the furgeon's appearance, he refufed to have the wounds infpected, and the furgeon being of opinion that it was too late to render him any kind of fervice, they let him lie ftill. The mafter foon after this preffed him much to know the mysterious cause of so inuch mifery, and fo unnatural an end. The dying wretch exclaimed, " a wounded confcience, who can bear." The mafter then endeavoured to comfort him, and affured him that his confcience ought not to wound him. "I know you (continued he) to be a good man, and the best of servants." "Hold! hold!” exclaimed the wretch, "your words are daggers to my foul! I am a villain, I have robbed you of hundreds, and have long fuffered the tortures of the damned for being thus a concealed villain; every act of kindness fhewn to me by you has been long like vultures tearing my vitals. Go, fir, leave me; the fight of you caufes me to fuffer excruciating tortures." He then fhrunk under the bed-clothes, and the fame night expired in a state of mind unhappy beyond-all defcription. 1 Hope gone! the guilty never rest! Difmay is always near; There is a midnight in the breast, No morn can ever cheer. Night Scenes Terrible as the above relation is, I affure you that I have not heightened it: when an ungrateful villain is punished-by his own reflections, we acknowledge it to be but juft. In Morton's Hiftory of Apparitions are feveral fhocking stories of perfons who, by their abandoned practices, have brought on themfelves all the horrors of a guilty confcience. O treacherous confcience; while the feems to fleep And gives up to licence unrecall'd, Unmarked; fee from behind her fecret stand, -Lift'ning, o'rhears the whifpers of our camp: As all rapacious ufurers conceal Their doomsday-book from all confuming heirs; Writes down our whole history, which death shall read, Night Thoughts. But the cafe is otherwife amongst the methodists, they work on the fears of the moft virtuous; youth and innocence fall victims daily before their threats of hell and damnation, and the poor feeble-minded, inftead of being comforted and encouraged, are often by them funk into an irrecoverable state of gloomy del pondence and horrible despair. If they hear of any who are on a fick-bed, they endeavour, if poffible, to gain admittance, and often dife turb many very innocent people in their last moments. And I believe that I may fafely add they fometimes haften those moments. For only think of three or four of thefe Spiritual Quixotes, or Dons of the Wocful Countenances, ftalking into a room and furrounding a bed in which a perfon lays very ill. To fee their difmal faces, and to hear their terrifying dif courfes, their gloomy and fuperftitious prayers, muft greatly alarm even perfons whofe lives were not before in any great danger; and I have no doubt but fome are by these means frightened out of their exiftence. It is true that many of their hearers are not only methodistically convinced, or alarmed, but are alfo hocus pocufly converted; for as fome of their preachers employ all their art and rhetoric, to alarm and terrify, fo others of them ufe their utmost skill, to give them affurance of their fins being pardoned; which remind us of the law-fuit, where one party fued for a forged debt, and the other produced a forged receipt. But with thoufands that is not the cafe, even with thofe who join their fociety, where fo much divine love, affurance, and extalies are talked of, where enthufiaftic, rapturous, intoxicating hymns are fung; and befides the unhappy mortals in their own community, thousands there are who have loft their peace of mind by occafionally hearing their fermons. "The gulph of hell wide op'ning to his eyes, And even thofe among them who have arrived to the highest pitch of enthufiafm, and who at times talk of their foretaste of heaven, and of their full affurance of fins forgiven, and of talking to the Deity, as familiarly as they will to one another; (all which, and much more, I have heard a thousand times) yet even thofe very pretended favourites of heaven are (if we believe themfelves) miferable for the greatest part of their time, having doubts, fears, horrors of mind, &c. continually haunting them wherever they are. See fuperftition trembling at the noise Of rushing torrents, or the thu der's voice; |