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Review.-Imperial and Royal French Almanacks.

cially that the spiritual wickedness in high places, against which our fathers prayed and argued, and the far distant prospect of whose fall they hailed with grateful rapture-that this man of sin was suddenly brought to desolation, or at least despoiled of his baneful influence wherever the genius of Napoleon prevailed.

He is no sooner fallen than the Pope re-ascends the throne of St. Peter and calls around him his Jesuits. The beloved Ferdinand again invigorates the Holy office, while the Restoration of the Bourbons is speedily followed by a persecution of French Protestants. This persecution Louis appears, publicly, to disavow. Whether the king or his family took any measures to prevent such a catastrophe, or whether the orders or neglects of his government were calculated to encourage the persecution are questions of a serious import. But we must return to M. Testu and notice his Royal Almanack.

M. Testu is one of the children of this world, wise in his generation, and equally prepared to become an Imperial, or a Royal Editor, a Vicar of Bray-whatever King shall reign. This Almanack for 1313, like the former, had been specially `recommended and patronized by the Emperor, but M. Testu had no inclination

To fall uncourtly with a falling Court.
He thus worships the rising sun in an
Avis des Editeurs :

“The Almanack for the year 1814 was
ready for publication when an ever-me-
morable Revolution restored to France her
lawful sovereign. All our labour became
useless, and the expense incurred a total
Joss. We sustained a considerable injury
but we were consoled by the hope of hap-
piness to come.
That hope indulged by
all good Frenchmen, is every day realizing
under the paternal government of Louis
XVIIIth. Let us be permitted here to
render the homage of our fidelity, our af-
fection and our profound gratitude towards
the August Monarch who has granted to
us a signal proof of his justice and bene-
volence by securing to us, for twenty years,
the exclusive right to the publication and
sale of the Royal Almanack." P. 2.

After some details respecting the arrangement of the work, the Avis closes with the following significant declaration: "Nous nous sommes conformés, pour sa rédaction, aux ordres supérieurs que nous avons reçus." We

VOL. XI.

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have been regulated, in forming this compilation by the commands we have received.'

Under such well-understood ordres supérieurs these editors introduce indeed the Protestants in the Section of Administration Générale des Cultes, under the head of a public office for the affairs of Cultes non Catholiques; but appear, in a very marked manner to separate them from the Catholic Clergy, to whom they assign a station immediately after the Foreign Ambassadors and before the Royal Household, under the head of "Clerge de France." This Deuxieme Partie occupies only one page, and that contains nothing but the following Note: "Le travail relatif à la nouvelle organization du Clergé n'étant pas terminé, nous n'avons pas cru devoir donner de détails sur cette partie." The arrangements for a new Organization of the Clergy not being completed, we have thought it our duty to omit any details on this Part. (P. 38.) Thus the editors, by securing a new and more dignified station, for Clergé de France provide easily for the entire omission of that Chapter in the Imperial Almanack, entitled, Organization des Cultes, in which the Protestants ranked in company with the Catholics, as equally recognized and respected by the government. What must France understand by this omission but that the eldest son of the Church forbad the further profanation of Culte Catholique by such an asso• ciation; and at the same time refused to sauction heresy by describing the Clergy and Colleges of the Protestants in a Royal Almanack ?

It is well known that many of the Protestants in France, whatever might be their political attachments, became alarmed for their toleration soon after the first return of Louis. They considered themselves as secured by the success of Napoleon's enterprise from Elba, and again exposed to danger by his defeat at Waterloo. Had Louis, indeed, returned in 1814 with sentiments of toleration, like those of his Imperial predecessor, would he have directed, or even suffered, the names of the Protestant Ministers and an account of their churches and institutions to have been excluded from a Royal Almanack, published at such a critical juncture; while the admission of them could not possibly injure the Catho

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Review.-Inquiry into the Methodist Societies.

lics, to whose interests the King's devotion was sufficiently apparent. But what display of religious tolerance or enlightened civil policy could be expected from one, surrounded, during his exile, by emigrant noblesse, martyrs to the ancient Régime, and a crowd of priests, whom nothing less than the grossest form of popery could satisfy? With too much truth was it observed that, in twenty years, the Bourbons had forgotten nothing and had learned nothing. Will France never deserve a better order of things than such a paternal government?

R.

ART. III.-A Candid and Impartial Inquiry into the Present State of the Methodist Societies in Ireland: wherein several important points relative to their doctrines and discipline are discussed. By a Member of the Society, 8vo. pp. 512. Belfast, printed; sold by Commins, Lincoln's Inn, London, 1814.

HIS work contains much import

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state of opinions on some of the most leading points in theology among the Methodists in Ireland. The author regards as an evil, the want of uniformity in religious doctrine, which his statements prove to exist, and to shew itself publicly, among the ministers of his denomination, as well as among the people. The object of his book appears to be, to stir up his brethren to provide a remedy for this imagined evil, by forming "an official compendium" of the doctrines of the Methodists," compiled from the voluminous writings wherein they now lie scattered, and bearing the stamp of legitimate authority." P. 348.

That among so numerous a body of Christians as the Methodists now are, a diversity of opinion on a variety of subjects should exist, might naturally be expected; but we were not aware that inquiry had extended itself so far, or that what is called heterodoxy existed to such a degree, as this writer shews to be the case among the societies in Ireland: not a few of his pages are filled with the proofs of this sup; posed departure from the truth, and the discussion of the controverted points. A statement of the subjects on which the Methodists in Ireland are divided in their opinions will not be ninteresting to our readers, and it

will enable them to judge of the grounds on which the writer thinks "an official compendium of doctrines," in other words, a creed, necessary for the preservation of methodism. They are, Original Sin, Imputed Righteousness, Justification, Faith, and Regeneration.

After stating, p. 69, that " Original Sin, implying the actual propagation of a nature morally corrupt and positively evil, comprehending complete alienation from God, a prevailing bias and propensity to sin, a direct enmity to the nature of holiness, and an inward association with the powers of darkness, if not an actual participation in a diabolical nature" is contended for as a first principle by the Methodists, he adds

"But although this doctrine is generally received in the Methodist connexion, yet it is important to know that this is not universally the case. There are, both cannot reconcile the popular opinions reamong preachers and people, those who of the wisdom, the goodness, the justice, or specting this point, to their notions, either

sity of the continuance of a corrupt nature, transmitted through the ordinary course of generation, as a foundation of redemption, they contend that this redemption should operate to the extirpation of the principle and thereby prove its claim to the glorious of evil from our nature in its initial state, title it sustains, and exhibit in infants the jects it is intended to attain. And under full accomplishment of the important obthese impressions, the opposers of the doctrine as above delineated say, it is incompatible with the divine wisdom, to permit the actual propagation of sin; for, say they, if God really wills the salvation of all men, and if holiness be essential to that salvation, and actually unholy in the extreme, have can the propagation of a nature positively Certainly not. any tendency to promote that glorious end? be a radical, and in most cases, an effectual On the contrary, it would opponent to the hopes of salvation.” P. 70.

The author states in the following who reject the doctrine of Original pages, the reasoning of his brethren goodness and truth of God, and mainSin, assert its inconsistency with the tain that neither sin nor holiness are susceptible of propagation. But though the arguments, many of which are strong and pointed, are given as the language of others, he himself seems to take the heterodox side on this subject. He says,

"As our object is not to foster preju

Review.-Inquiry into the Methodist Societies.

dice, but to ascertain and vindicate truth, it is highly necessary in the investigation of any point of doctrine, to turn it on every side, to look at it in all its bearings, and with patience and candour to appreciate its real merit by the acknowledged criterions of orthodoxy. With this view let us put to ourselves the questions which follow-If, as is generally supposed, Original Sin, propagated as an active principle in the soul, be the efficient cause of the universal prevalence of evil, will not this exonerate mankind from much of the responsibility which would otherwise attach to their dispositions and actions, as moral agents in a state of probation? For really if our nature be radically evil, or if evil be so closely interwoven with its fabric as is generally believed, it would appear unreasonable to expect any good fruit from so corrupt a tree. Yet we find God both expects and demands it." (See Jer. ii. 2.-Isa. v. .4.) P. 185. Note.

Imputed Righteousness. "Upon this interesting subject also," says the author, "there is a considerable diversity of opinion in the Methodist connexion." P. 95. He acknowledges "the popular feeling appears to be rather against it;" and though he labours to prove it by quotations from the writings of Mr. Wesley, he is compelled to admit that the founder of the Methodist connexion, if in the early part of his ministry he maintained, afterwards rejected, and openly opposed the views of the subject for which he contends. He quotes a passage from Mr. Wesley, which it is impossible to reconcile with the notion that Christ's righteousness and merits are imputed to the sinner.

"Again; Mr. Wesley proceeds, least of all does justification imply that God is deceived in those whom he justifies; that he thinks them to be in fact what they are not, that he accounts them to be otherwise than they are. It does by no means imply, that God judges concerning us, contrary to the real nature of things; that he esteems us better than we are, or believes us righteous when we are unrighteous. Surely no. The judgment of the all-wise God is always according to truth; neither can it ever consist with his unerring wisdom to think that I am innocent, to judge that I am righteous or holy, because another is so. He can no more in this manner confound ine with Christ, than with David or Abraham."

P. 168.

The author lays the greatest stress on the doctrine of Imputed Righteous ness, and laments the opposition it meets with amongst the Methodists.

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Sentiments respecting the death of Christ, which alarm him, are entertained by some of the preachers.

The author has heard from a Methodist pulpit, the doctrine inculcated that the

death of Christ was not essential to the sal

vation of mankind, but that God made choice of that as the most eligible and advantageous mode of reconciling the world to himself. And he has been told by another preacher, and one of very distinguished rank and eminence in the connexion, that the death of Christ was not a meritorious sacrifice for the sins of the world, which was a Calvinistic notion; that God chose indeed to manifest his grace and extend his mercy to men through that medium; but that if it had so pleased him, he might

have doue the same through the death of a bullock or any similar medium." P. 355.. Note.

We are informed, p. 138. "The most general sentiment in the Methodist connexion concerning" Justification" is, that it is perfectly synonymous with the forgiveness of sins; the removal of guilt, and of the liability to punishment which we incur thereby; a mere exoneration from the penalties to which a breach of the divine law subjects every transgressor." To this the author objects, though it appears from his own account, that it was the sentiment of the founder of the Methodist societies, and has been from the first the sentiment most generally maintained in those societies.

He makes great complaint of the increase of legality among the Methodists, because they do not insist on some popular doctrines which are generally termed evangelical, but continually enforce reformation and good works, without directing their hearers to depend on the personal righteousness of Christ imputed to them for their justification, pp. 130-134; and with all his veneration for Mr. Wesley he hardly acquits him of being too legal. for God, and for the honour of the diHe says, p. 278, "Mr. Wesley's zeal vine law, carried him with a full tide into the bosom of the strongest Arminianism." And adds, in a note, "We may here notice an instance of Mr. Wesley's having about that time lost all dread of danger from the introduction of legality into his system of divinity. In a letter to Miss Bishop, of Bath, dated November 5, 1770, he observes :-"I cannot find in my Bible any such sin as legality. Truly, we have been often afraid where no fear

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Review.-Inquiry into the Methodist Societies.

was. I am not half legal enough, not enough under the law of love." And again, in a subsequent letter to the same lady, February 16, 1771, he says; "Legality, with most who use that term, really means tenderness of conscience.'" The Methodists have already done much good, and we have no fear of their usefulness being diminished by their preaching becoming more practical.

We are glad to find that rational ideas respecting the nature of faith, are making progress among the Methodists in Ireland; for which they are censured by this writer. Complaining of the pharisaism of some of the preachers, he says, p. 130, faith according to them, being only a rational conviction of the great truths of revelation, and its only use to act as a spur to our endeavours to fulfil the righteousness of the law, which is to be our chief passport to heaven." Again,

"The advocates for this doctrine (and they are numerous in the Methodist connexion,) contend that the faith which is ordained of God to be the instrument of our salvation, is essentially the same with that reliance which we repose upon the testimony of a man, in whose integrity we can place implicit confidence; the distinction between these consisting only in the diversity of the objects which they embrace. And accommodating their language to their principles, they divide faith into human and divine: human faith is, according to them, the assent which we give to human testimony; and divine faith the assent which we give to divine testimony. And they insinuate, that the one is as much the spontaneous act of the natural powers

of the human mind as the other.

"The evidence upon which this divine faith' is required and supposed to rest, is that which is contained in the oracles of inspiration. But little or nothing is either said or admitted respecting the particular influence of the spirit of God, in applying the truths of scripture to the conscience, or inspiring a conviction of their reality and importance." P. 224.

The following is the view of Regeneration, which this author states as entertained by some of his brethren the Methodists, and to be rapidly gaining ground among them. "They appear to believe that every man possesses what may properly be termed a natural power to obey the divine commandments, to repent of his sins, and believe the gospel at his pleasure;

the spirit of God being always ready (so far as his influence may be neces sary,) to co-operate with the sinner, and assist him in the work of conversion. But it would appear, from this system of doctrine, that by far the greater part of the work rests with the sinner himself, who, it seems, has it completely in his power to become a saint whenever he pleases; only in consideration of the foolish and sinful habits he has long indulged, it will necessarily be a work of some time and labour to get his heart thoroughly converted to the ways of truth and holiness. No extraordinary degree of divine influence, however, is to be expected, or is indeed supposed to be requisite to effect the great work of conversion; and accordingly it is a principle held by the favourers of this doctrine, That God, prompted by his own goodness, hath already done all that he possibly can do, consistently with his own glory, for the present happiness and final salvation of every human creature upon earth; and that consequently no farther interference of divine power or influence need be expected to effect the conversion of any individual; although, as the divine spirit is omnipresent, and is in fact the primum mobile of all physical, intellectual, and moral power in the universe, his aid in a general way cannot be excluded, particularly as it is admitted, that God is loving to every man, and his tender mercy is over all his works." Pp. 177-178.

Though this writer asserts, p. 287, that "the Methodist societies are well grounded in the fundamental and important doctrine of a trinity of persons in the Godhead;" it appears from his account at large that a dissonance of language is found among them respecting the divinity of Christ, and that a complete uniformity of opinion on the subject does not exist in their societies. He says, p. 288.

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rality both of preachers and people seem content with a general, but often very confused idea of the divinity of Christ." In a note, he adds, "A preacher, who certainly has no mean opinion of his own talents and orthodoxy, was delivering a discourse from Col. i. 12-18. He admitted that the terms Jesus Christ applied only to the manhood of our Lord, and were descriptive of his vicarious character, as the Saviour of the world, and the only

Review-Inquiry into the Methodist Societies.

mediator between God and man. And he contended strenuously that his person and character had no kind of existence until the formation of the former in the womb of the virgin mother, and the subsequent developement of the latter in the life and death of Christ." Even some of the writer's own expressions will be found difficult to reconcile with the proper doctrine of the trinity, of which he declares "Athanasius the great oracle." P. 295. He represents the notion that God died, as the greatest of absurdities.

"But is any one anong us weak enough to conclude from this figurative expression, (Acts 20-28.) that the eternal God literally shed his blood for us? This preposterous notion would be incomparably more grossly absurd than the Popish doctrine of transubstantiation. The idea of a suffering and expiring Deity is so repugnant to our enlightened reason, so degrading to the dice character, so much at varia ace with the principles of all theology, and sin.ersive of every attribute of the Godhead, that it is beyond measure astonishing how such a notion could ever find its way into the doctrines of Christianity; or that any figurative expression of scripture could, by men of sense, be ever tortured into the support of a doctrine so full of absurdity and contradiction. It is deifying the material body of the blessed Jesus, and laying the foundation of the grossest idolatry, in the very person of the immaculate Son of God. Doubtless the idolatry of the mass originally sprang out of this absurd notion of a corporeal Deity whereas we know that God is a spirit, whom so man hath seen nor can see :' and they that worship him acceptably must do it in spirit and in truth." P. 297.

Again, he says,

"It is very commonly supposed that the vengeance of God, which was satiated by the blood of Christ, was infinite in its extent, and boundless in its demands; and hence it has been concluded that the Deity himself must have participated in the suffering, and have given merit to the atonement, which otherwise could not have been adequate to the purposes of reconciliation upon legal principles. The accuracy of these sentiments may be justly questioned; they appear to be the offspring of a fallacious mode of reasoning, unsupported by divine authority, and instituted for the purpose of accommodating a pre-conceived opinion of an excessive rigour in the divine economy, which even transcends the boundaries of strict justice, and which induced God to require an infinite satisfaction for a finite offence. We call it a finite offence,

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because although committed against a being infinite in his perfections, yet it was the transgression of a finite creature who was incapable of performing an infinite act, and it was also the violation of a law instituted for the regulation of the conduct of that finite creature; consequently its terms were suited to the limited capacity of that being, or those beings who were to be its subjects. Now we argue, that if the fulfilment of that law did not demand the exertion of infinite powers, so neither could its violation require an infinite atonement." P. 299.

He justly censures the following lines in the Methodist hymns, which he says, carry their own condemnation on their face."

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"The immortal God for me hath died!"
And-

"I thirst for a life-giving God,
"A God that ou Calvary died!"

It will be difficult for the author to reconcile the above passages with his ascribing to the Son of God all the essential attributes of Deity, p. 287, for if, as he justly asserts, God could neither suffer nor die, it follows that he who actually suffered and died was not God: but Paul declared, "It is Christ that died," and that he was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Could the author induce the Methodists to form a creed, under the name of " An Official Compendium" of Doctrines, it is not at all likely it would produce uniformity, though it might dissimulation and hypocrisy. If creeds when enforced by the civil power, and fenced by all the terrors of persecution, never produced uniformity of opinion, how can it be thought that one unsupported by the state and not so fenced would do it? The most probable effect of such a measure would be, that no longer permitted to exercise freedom of opinion in the methodist connexion multitudes would leave it, and form separate societies where they could freely think for themselves, and openly declare their views of divine truth. We trust the Methodists are too sensible of the value of religious liberty, ever to submit to the yoke of bondage this writer wishes to see imposed opon them. Is it not enough that the societies are denied the liberty of choosing their own ministers; must the preachers also be put in fetters by their "per

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