صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

"All this enthusiasm and extravagance may be intended to call together a concourse of people, and multiply as much as poffible the chances of gaining members from among fi the weak and credulous. I underftand that the propriety of fuch proceedings has been taken into confideration at one of their conferences, and that the votes were for their continuance.

"A Mr. Bloodgood preached in the forenoon at Reifter's town. He had been a dancing mafter, and certainly the tranfition to his prefent calling would, in one respect, make him feel quite at home. The preacher at the seminary, who had been an outrider for a Yorkshire house, and then an unfortunate (hoe-merchant at Philadelphia, talked of ciftereens of running water, and made other grammatical errors in abundance. He was, however, reckoned a fine man, and the ladies called him very pretty. As for the matter, one methodist fermon is a good fample of a thoufand. I am told that it is a principal object with moft of the round or itinerant preachers, to get fnugly married and fettled on plantations. They are much followed, especially by the women; but I apprehend more from curiofity, and a defire to fee and be seen, than from a view to converfion; indeed fome are honeft enough to confefs it. It is excufable, when we confider how far afunder the plantations are, the thinnefs of the population, the fcarcity of market towns, and in fine, the few opportunities young people have of feeing one another, except at meeting. So that, faying nothing of fpiritual converfion, I have no doubt many a couple is converted from the errors of fingle life to the wholesome doctrine and practice of matrimony by thefe periodical affemblies. Camp meetings are frequently held, when the people affemble in crowds, and encamp in tents by families, for three or four nights, having a flock of provifions, &c. with them."

Of thefe camp meetings we have the following curious account in Janfon's Stranger in America.

"The Methodists affemble in the fummer feafon in furprizing numbers, in different parts of the United States. These are called camp meetings, and converts will travel to attend them several hundred miles. A place is fixed upon at a convocation of the preachers, at which their bishop fometimes

*.

* It is well known that for many years Mr. Wesley kept up a communion with the Church of England, and exhorted his

preachers

.

fometimes prefides, and a diftant time appointed for thefe meetings, which alfo draw together the neighbouring inhabitants for a confiderable diftance, from motives of curiofity. They fometimes continue during a fortnight, and this time is paffed in the field, in prayer. They bring with them provisions, tents, or blankets, and fupport the numerous body of preachers, who continue bawling to the people in turns, day and night. When figns of converfion begin to be manifeft, feveral preachers crowd round the object, exhorting a continuance of the efforts of the fpirit, and dif playing in the most frightful images, the horrours which attend fuch as do not come unto them. The figns of regeneration are difplayed in the moft extravagant fymptoms. I have feen women jumping, ftriking, and kicking like raving maniacs; while the furrounding believers could not keep them in poftures of decency. This continues till the convert is entirely exhaufted; but they confider the greater refiftance the more the faith, and thus they are admitted into what they term the fociety. The men under the agony of converfion, find it fufficient to exprefs their contrition by loud groans, with hands clafped and eyes clofed."

The following is an exact copy of an advertisement of a camp-meeting, taken from a newspaper printed at Trenton, in New Jersey.

"CAMP MEETING.

"The public is hereby informed, that a camp meeting will be held near Mr. Minard Farley's, in a grove, about a quarter of a mile from New Germantown, in Hunterdon County. To commence on Saturday, the 29th of Sept. and

preachers and followers to do the same. But towards the close of life he took upon him to ordain some of his lay teachers, and at the desire of Dr. Coke, he went so far as to appoint (we will not prostitute the word consecrate) the said doctor and one Francis Asbury, to be joint superintendants over the brethren in North America, with power to appoint others of a like description and authority. In other words he presumed, though only a presbyter, to confer a sort of episcopacy upon another presbyter, and also upon a layman, in direct opposition to all Christian order, and to the practice of the church from the beginning; yet this same Coke, who assumes the title of bishop, still pretends to be a son of the Church of England, and the pulpits of some of the city churches have been opened to him, within our knowledge, for the purpose of preaching charity sermons!

to

to continue three days, under the fuperintendence of the minifters of the Methodist Church.

"As camp-meetings are generally attended by feveral thousands from far and near, and commonly continue day and night, it will be beft for thofe who may come a diftance, to bring provifions for themfelves and horfes, if poffible; and to tarry on the ground till the meeting ends.

"All friendly minifters and praying people are invited to attend the faid meeting.

Trenton,
Sept. 10, 1804.

Thomas Ware,
Jofeph Totten.'

Such is the prevalence, and fo extravagant the practice of the Methodists in that land of light and liberty which has been fet forth as an example of Chriftian order and unity. I am, &c. SOBRIUS.

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

REFLECTIONS ON THE THIRTIETH OF
JANUARY.

HE tragedy acted on this day, and the remembrance of which is directed to be kept up by a folemn religious fervice in all our churches, ought to be seriously confidered by every Englishman. He may learn from this part of our hiftory the most useful leffons of political and religious caution; and acquire from the experience of his ancestors good rules for the regulation of his own conduct.

It should make him jealous of that evil fpirit of murmuring against public authority, on account of difficulties which are incident to the very nature of government; and it fhould reftrain him from joining in the clamour of a feditious faction, whofe object is the acceffion of power, while they pretend to be guided by no other principle than a regard for the public good. Above all, it fhould ferve as a warning

against

against innovations in Church and State, the effects of crude theories and of defigning fpeculations.

The hiftory of that calamitous period exhibits a remarkable clafs of perfons, by whofe efforts principally the Church was dernolifhed, the conftitution broken, and a virtuous monarch barbarously murdered.

Thefe were the puritans, who, from their rife in the reign of Elizabeth, diftinguished themselves by a pertinacious oppofition to all authority, ecclefiaftical and civil, under the fpecious plea of liberty of confcience, and a zealous concern for the pure worship of God.

Thefe men were animated by fuch a factious spirit, and carried their pretenfions to fo high a pitch, even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the pious and moderate John Fox could not help remarking of them, "I perceive a certain race of men rifing up, who if they increafe and gather ftrength in this kingdom, I am forry to fay, what disturbance I foresee muft follow from it."

The preachers of this defcription were called by the party the "godly and faithful minifters," while the best names applied to the conforming clergy were those of " Papists in difguife, idle drones, dumb dogs, popelings, maffing priests, little antichrifts, &c." And fo fuccefsful were the puritans in gaining followers, that the councils of the queen were for a time embarraffed, and Pope Pius V. in the first year of his pontificate, being hereby encouraged, iffued a bull to "anathematize and confound the hereticks, and fow difcord among them; wherein, among other things, he willed and authorized the wife and learned of his ecclefiaftics, to labour, endeavour, and contrive all manner of devices to confound the heretics: that thereby they might either be reclaimed to confefs their errors, and acknowledge the jurif diction of the fee of Rome, or that a total infamy be brought upon them and their pofterities, by a perpetual difcord and contention among themselves; by which means they might either speedily perish by God's wrath, or continue in eternal difference." In confequence of this bull many Romish priefts became miffionaries in England, under the guise of puritanical minifters and zealous preachers of a more perfect

reformation.

The endeavours of this faction were to overthrow the ecclefiaftical government established by law, and to introduce the republican fyftem of Geneva. This levelling principle

* Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 520.

was

was not confined to the church, but extended itself to the state, as was roundly affirmed by the two great leaders of the party, Cartwright and Travers, in their "Full and plain Declaration of Ecclefiaftical Difcipline." Here it is declared that "Magiftrates muft alfo, as well as the reft, fubmit themfelves, and be obedient unto the juft and lawful authority of the officers of the Church; for, seeing they not only rule by authority of Jefus Chrift, but in a manner - reprefent his perfon, feeing they rule not as they themselves lift, according to their own will, but only according to his word and commandment; is it not meet, that even Kings and the highest magiftrates fhould be obedient unto them? for it is meet that all the princes and monarchs of the world fhould give up their fceptres and crowns unto him, whom God hath made and appointed the heir of his kingdom, and lord of heaven and earth. We might allege out of the hiftories of all times, divers examples of godly princes who fubmitted themfelves to the order and government of the Church appointed by God."

This

Befides their diflike in general to the English form of government, fome of the puritans had a particular objection to that of queen Elizabeth, because fhe was a woman. opinion came from Geneya, where it was commonly received and preached as agreeable to the word of God. It is therefore not to be wondered at, that this princefs fhould manifeft her dislike to a republican form of Church Government imported from a quarter where her civil authority was. condemned as unfcriptural. The first who vaunted the depofing principle, was the famous Scotch reformado, John Knox; in his "Blaft againft the monftrous regiment and empire of women," wherein he endeavoured to prove that it was altogether unlawful for women to reign, and to the laft period of his life Knox continued to hold this opinion. In a letter to Secretary Cecil, this furious divine charges him "in the name of the eternal God to acquaint the queen that if fhe would confefs that the extraordinary difpenfation of God's great mercy made that lawful unto her, which both nature and God's laws did deny unto all other women befides; then fhould none in England be more willing to maintain her authority than he; but if, God's wonderous work fet afide, the grounded the juftnefs of her title upon laws and ordinances of men, then, as he was affured fuch foolish prefumption did offend God's fupreme majefty: fo he great

*

* Knox had a queen for his own sovereign at this very time.

ly

« السابقةمتابعة »