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the christian graces, he cannot say, he does not know. scriptures do not warrant him in going beyond the bare fact, that it is so; and doubtless the human mind is at present unable to go farther. Therefore any attempt to explain this point by employing sensible images and talking of impressions and voices, is to open a path that leads astray,—is to surround christian experience with a distempered atmosphere; is, in fine, to subject ourselves to the folly and extravagance invariably attendant upon attempts to be "wise above what is written."

It was this attempt at explanation, that produced the doctrine of these sermons. The text on which they are founded is, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Rom. viii. 16. But this text certainly does not contain the doctrine developed in the sermons. Every attentive reader will mark a peculiarity in some of the language of this chapter, and especially in those connections in which the phrase, "the Spirit," is employed. Yet, however these connections may be understood, nothing but the perversion which a wild philosophy sometimes bestows upon the bible, can find the doctrine of impressions there. The 16th verse merely states a fact; while Wesley unfolds and defends his theory as that fact. The apostle simply says, "the Spirit beareth witness;" but these sermons undertake to furnish an exact view of the mode of operation. The fault then consists in an attempt to transmute a theory into a doctrine; to weave the explanation into his "standard," and thus enforce belief in it, as a leading article in christian theology. It is the same fault as that spirit of theorizing, which, under various forms and from various motives, plunges into the deep things of God to seek THE HOW, THE MODE, where revelation has withheld it, and impose its speculations upon the world as the only wisdom,-essential doctrines. In the variety of its operations, how has this spirit troubled the church! How will it trouble the church until every man of God gives himself to fasting and prayer, that it may be cast out! It is this, far more than any thing else whatever, that has kindled and sustains in this country, those controversial agitations which are threatening to desolate one of the fairest portions of God's vineyard, with the convulsions, the ruins, the frightful show of a battlefield. It is this, that has furnished the spectacle of brethren, and brethren too of the same communion,-excited from discussion to combat, about the how and why sin exists under the divine government, or the posterity of Adam are sinners in consequence of his sin. There is no book we would sooner hail, or with more gladness, than a faithful history of the operations of this spirit in all ages; in which the writer, discriminating between the theory and doctrine, should furnish a clear view of the fortunes of christian doctrine, and exhibit all the de

partures from its purity which theorizing has occasioned. He who shall write such a book, will do christianity a most valuable service.

Pure, unwarranted theorizing, as Wesley's account of "the witness of the Spirit" is, we are not saying, that he was led into it by a love of curious and idle speculation. We are far from saying so, for we do not believe it. He was no deliberate trifler. He did not devote himself to religion either purely or chiefly as a theme of curious philosophizing; indeed that sympathy with a set of opinions, which commonly brings forth blind and virulent dogmatism, is never of this kind; and a devoted mystic necessarily embraces the great principles of his creed with religious fervor. In this way Wesley adopted his view on this subject; and its peculiar nature is such, that no speculating bad man is in danger of tending to it, through the influence of his philosophy. Whatever may be the case afterwards, in the first instance none but good men are liable to fall into errors like this; and the good have erred here, commencing with slight departures from harmonious christian character, with bringing small portions of strange fire into the temple of God, and often consummating the evil by a wreck of all that is "lovely and of good report." To those who presume, that there is no danger in rising at least so far above the bible and reason, as to place implicit confidence in this theory of special revelations, we would say, beware! Should they still persist in the presumption, from among the various monitory examples recorded in the annals of christianity, we would select the case of Edward Irving, and urge them to consider it with the closest scrutiny and be satisfied, that when christian experience is seduced into the land of dreams and fervid extravagance, there is danger of its being fearfully wrecked.

2. The doctrine of these sermons is the same in principle with every extravagance of the wildest and most ardent form of mysticism. There is no account of a voice, or appearance, or vision, or revelation, on the annals of enthusiasm, which may not be vindicated in the same way in which Mr. Wesley vindicates this theory of impressions. It will be recollected, that he describes the impression as attended with infallible criteria of its divinity, which instantly convince the subject of the communication, although he can give no explanation to another. Of course, while he is truly religious, no one has a right to question the correctness of such a man's account of his revelations from heaven. Here then is an open door for every thing in enthusiasm that is lawless. No matter how preposterous, how amazing, how incredibly monstrous may be the enthusiast's account of his visions and voices, he is intrenched, and no expostulation can exorcise the insanity, no reasoning can reach him. His case is above argument, and reason must do nothing but humbly sit and stare at the thing in

stupified astonishment. By the inexplicable criteria the enthusiast is" absolutely assured," that his revelations are divine, and that he labors under no delusion. Mr. Wesley's test, as we have seen, does not meet the difficulty, for it has no power to quell the fervors of this extravagance, unless they are joined with positive wickedness. If the "fruits" follow, the account of a divine afflatus cannot be questioned. Now that a good man should become an enthusiast, is by no means a strange supposition. At least it will not appear such to those who understand the tendencies of the human mind, or who are acquainted with the character and career of Mr. Wesley and others. How then, upon his principles, shall the evil be dislodged from the mind of a man who is undoubtedly pious? What means shall be employed to purge those currents of religious experience where the "gravel and the gold roll together?" How shall we convince the truly religious enthusiast, that the "impressions" and "visions" in which he fancies that he realizes "sensible communion" with heaven, are nothing but the tumults of nervous sensation and the vagaries of a morbid imagination? Consciousness can determine nothing but the quality of our exercises and character; and according to Mr. Wesley's showing, does not make it possible to correct delusion in the circumstances which we have supposed. We will state a case in point,-one which fell under our own observation. We refer to the case of a lady who formerly resided in one of the country towns of New-England. She had been educated in a family, and under the influence of a small religious society, where the prevailing spirit was exceedingly deficient in point of intelligence, but warm with the glow of enthusiasm, and somewhat affected with a dash of its wildness, and had nearly arrived at middle life without becoming pious, when a revival prevailed in her neighborhood. From the commencement of the revival she professed anxiety; and, as she was at the time considerably indisposed and her imagination extremely morbid, many of her exercises were peculiar. Her solicitude continued about ten days, when she professed to have met with a change, and to be filled with the joy of hope by means of an astonishing vision. She stated, that near the middle of the night, as she lay in bed pondering her case, her room was suddenly illuminated and she heard a voice addressing her "in tones more ravishing than any music that ever was heard." The light resembled her conceptions of a glory and continued to fill the room during about five minutes, and these words were thrice repeated: "Thy sins are forgiven thee, go and sin no more." the sound of the voice died away the light vanished; "but," said she, "my burden was gone and I was happy,-almost too happy to live. At intervals, I seemed to hear the singing of angels. My strength failed me. I could take no note of time. How long I VOL. VIII.

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lay thus I cannot tell. At length I revived as from a trance and sung so loud as to awaken the family. We all arose and I told them what the Lord had done for me."

Now we do not suppose an intelligent Methodist will contend, that such cases contain nothing wrong and alien to pure religion. We doubt not that bishop Soule, or Dr. Bangs, or Dr. Fisk, would censure the wrong with proper discrimination and severity. But still we ask, how can a true disciple of Wesley, upon his principles, show that this case is not one of the decisive "witness of the Spirit"? How will he detect the delusion and separate it from the true and pure? He cannot do it by an appeal to the subsequent state of the character,-to the life. Such a trial of the case we have related, would accomplish nothing but its vindication, for the subsequent life of this lady was irreproachable. She united herself with the church where she resided, and until her death was one of its most devotedly pious members. The "witness of her own spirit," therefore is decidedly in her favor. Reason and a sound mind would contend, that this lady was truly converted, inasmuch as from that hour she led a new life; and they would say, the extravagancies resulted from the three following causes, viz: the want of an unclouded and distinct knowledge of the nature of religion, the influence of a nervous disease, and the action of a diseased imagination. But to this she could reply, as in the language of these sermons, I am not deluded. I know that the light and voice were from God. I had an instantaneous and absolute assurance of it on their first appearance. I cannot explain how I knew it. I cannot describe the intrinsic evidences that gave me this assurance, nor have you a right to question me concerning them. Yet I know the vision to have been real and divine, as certainly as I know my own existence.' And who, that strictly adheres to Mr. Wesley's doctrine of the special revelation of pardon and adoption, can gainsay this answer. If such a reply is unanswerable in the mouth of a truly converted man, who believes that such a revelation has been made him by means of an impression,-why is it not unanswerable in this case? No man will presume to doubt, that innumerable modes of manifestation are possible to God, any one of which can be employed when his wisdom pleases. The question is not what he can do, but what is the fact and where the belief in revelations by impressions is held, how can it be doubted, that he sometimes reveals himself in dazzling light, and announces the sinner's pardon in an audible voice, in tones sweeter and richer than any earthly melody? When working miracles in attestation of the divine origin of christianity, Christ revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus in a manner similar to this. But such a mode is no more miraculous than that for which Mr. Wesley contends, and if one man claims to have received intelli

gence from heaven by means of an impression, why may not another claim to have received similar communications in a vision like that which appeared to Saul when journeying to Damascus, or that which Peter saw when he fell down in a trance and was directed to preach the gospel to the Gentiles? This consideration alone is sufficient to render the true nature of Mr. Wesley's doctrine perfectly obvious; and we repeat it, it is that germ which, in a favorable soil and with proper culture, would flourish luxuriantly and bring forth all the fruits of the wildest mysticism. Nor has it been without its influence, as the history of Methodism amply shows. Without going further, it would be easy to illustrate its tendency by considering the accounts of religious experience which we sometimes meet with in Methodist biographies and papers, or by referring to scenes which not unfrequently occur at Methodist camp-meetings.

3. We may notice another evil tendency of the doctrine of these sermons. It tends to destroy the healthy action of christian character, by creating an intemperate and all-absorbing demand for feeling and excitement.

Christian character, to be correct, must be exactly proportioned. Religion is adapted to our whole nature, and is designed to cultivate the whole without giving an undue prominence to any part of it, to cultivate its intellect and its sensibilities,-its thoughts and its feelings, and to train us for the holiness and happiness of heaven. Human nature is a glorious harp, capable of yielding music as rich as that which gladdens Paradise; but christianity finds it out of order and perverted to degrading services, and it aims to tune it and completely fit it for its appropriate use. That this object may be accomplished, our religion must be not all speculation, or all sentiment, or all outward merely. It must be all these together, and each in its due proportion. Every string of the harp must be tuned with the most careful exactness. Of course to be religious we must have feeling, just as certainly as there must be undulations of the air in producing music. But the true feelings of religion spring not from direct efforts to produce them; they are the result of the proper cultivation of human nature, and to make them the primary object of attention is to commit a wrong that will derange the proportion of christian character. That Mr. Wesley's doctrine of impressions is calculated to give the feelings a dangerous prominence, follows as a direct consequence of their being made a principal test of religion. As the great evidence of regeneration, they become the object of perpetual solicitude, and by this means the attention will be drawn off from things whose importance should be viewed as paramount. Self-examination will become a study of frames and impressions, and these will be subjected to perpetual examination,