Obferve the entrails, mark the flying bird, Effay on Senfibility. Cicero has faid the fame in profe: "The fuperftitious man, (fays he) is miferable in every fcene, in every incident in life: even fleep itself, which banishes all other cares of unhappy mortals, affords to him matter of new terror, while he examines his dreams, and finds in thofe vifions of the night, prognoftication of future calamities." Between twenty and thirty years fince, fome thoufands of them in London took it into their heads that the world would be at end on fuch a night, and for fome days previous to this fatal night, nothing was attended to but fafting and praying, and when it came, they made a watch-night of it, and fpent it in prayer, &c. expecting every moment to be the laft; and it is remarkable, that thoufands who were not methodists gave credit to this ridiculous prophecy, and were terribly alarmed; but the next morning they were afhamed to look at one another, and many durft not appear in their fhops for fome time afterwards. But others of them faid that God had heard the prayers of the righteous, and fo fpared the world a little longer. What numbers floth with gloomy horror fills! Hence what loud outcries, and well meaning rage, What end!efs quarrels at the prefent age! How many blame! how often may we hear, "Such vice!-well, fure, the last day must be near !" The fad creation of ciftemper'd brains, Ditpatch, dear friend! move, labour, fweat, run, fly! E, ROLLE. Some years after that, Mr. Wesley alarmed his people all over England, with the tail of a comet ; great numbers were dreadfully apprehenfive left this comet fhould fcorch the earth to a cinder; but the faints by prayer made the comet keep a proper dif tance. Charnock, of the laft century, in his Difcourfe on Providence, has proved (in his way) that the universe was created and is kept agoing for the fake of the elect, and that as foon as their number is complete, the whole will be deftroyed. This is genuine Calvinifm. But thefe our more enlighten'd days, Confefs the native force of truth, Feel the full luftre of her rays, And bow to her eternal truth. BILOE The fanatics in every age have found their account in making their followers believe the end of the world was at hand. In fome of the wills and deeds, by which eftates have been given to monafteries, &c. in France, they have expreffed their belief of the world's being nearly at an end, as a reafon for making fuch liberal donations to the church. But it is happy for us that in England fuch wills would be set afide. A cafe of this nature occurred while Lord Northington was at the head of the law department. Reilly the preacher, had wheedled, or frightened, an old woman (Mrs. Norton) out of a deed or gift of fifty pounds a year, but after the old woman's panic and fear of damnation was over, fhe had recourse to Chancery, and his Lordship annulled the deed of gift. His Lordship's remarks on fuch kinds of impofition are very curious, and worth your reading. Ŝee Collectanea Juridica, vol. i. p. 458. In fact, the very best of the methodists are like children, elated or depreffed by mere trifles; and many who joined them while young and ignorant, quit their fociety as they attain to years of difcretion, or as their judgment is better informed. Reafon, arife and vindicate thy claim, Flash on our minds the joy-infufing flame; Pour forth the fount of light, whose endless store Love or anger, ambition or avarice (fays a great man) have their root in the temper and affections, which the foundest reason is scarce able fully to cor rect; but fuperftition, being founded, on falfe opinion, must immediately vanifh, when true philofophy has infpired jufter fentiments of fuperior powers. Thus the fair order, mark'd on all around, Effay on Senúbility. I am, Dear Friend, Yours.. LETTER VIII. Religion's luftre is, by native innocence, Falfe beauties, which the wants not, make the world Rowe's Tamerlane.. Be careful to destroy the book of James, And Phocion's exit but a fhining fin. DEAR FRIEND, THE HE enthufiaftic notions which I' had imbibed, and the defire I had to be talking about religious myfteries, &c. anfwered one valuable purpofe; as it caufed me to embrace every opportunity to learn to read, fo that I could foon read the eafy parts of the Bible, Mr. Wefley's Hymns, &c. and i every leifure minute was fo employed.. In the winter I was obliged to attend my work from fix in the morning until ten at night. In the fummer half-year, I only worked as long as we could fce without candle; but notwithstanding the close attention I was obliged to pay to my trade, yet for a long time I read ten chapters in the Bible every day: I alto read and learned many hymns, and as foon as I could procure fome, of Mr. Wefley's Tracts, Sermons, &c. I read them alfo; many of them I perufed ju Cleacina's Temple (the place where my Lord Chesterfield advised his fon to read the claffics) but I did not apply them after reading to the farther ufe that his Lordfhip hints at. ノ I had fuch good eyes, that I often read by the light of the moon, as my mafter would not permit me to take a candle into my room, and that prohibition I looked upon as a kind of perfecution, but I always comforted myfelf with the thoughts of my being a dear child of God; and as fuch, that it was impoffible for me to efcape perfecution from the children of the devil, which epithets I very piously ap plied to my good mafter and miftrefs. And fo ignorantly and imprudently zealous (being a real methodift) was I for the good of their precious fouls, as fometimes to give them broad hints of it, and of the dangerous ftate they were in. To wanton whim and prejudice we owe, The narrow way fanatic mortals tread, By fuperftitious prejudice mifled. This paffage leads to heaven-yet ftrange to tell! Another's confcience finds it leads to hell. CHATTERTON, Their pious good old minifter, the Reverend Mr. Harrifon, I called "a blind leader of the blind;" and I more than once affured my mistress, that both he and his whole flock were in a state of damnation; being without the affurance of their fins being pardoned, they must be " ftrangers to the hope of Ifracl, and without God in the world." My good mistress wifely thought that à good stick was the best way of arguing with fuch an ignorant infatuated boy as I was, and had often recourse to it; but I took care to give her a deal of trouble; for whenever I was ordered in my turn to read in the Bible, I always felected fuch chapters as I thought militated againft Arians, Socinians, &c. and fuch verfes as I deemed favourable to the doctrine of Original Sin, Juftification by Faith, Imputed Righteoufnefs, the Doctrine of the Trinity, &c. On fuch parts I always placed a particular emphafis, which puzzled and teazed the old lady a good deal. Among other places I thought (having to been taught by the methodists) that the fixteenth chapter of Ezekiel very much favoured the doctrines of original fin, imputed righteoufnefs, &c. that chapter I often felected and read to her, and she has often read the eighteenth chapter of the fame prophecy, for the fake of the parable of the Father's eating four grapes. Whenever I read in St. Paul's Epiftles on juftification by faith alone, my good miftrefs would read in the Epiffe of St. James, fuch paffages as Tay that a man is not juftified by faith alone, but by faith and works, which often embarraffed me not a little. However, I comforted myfelf with the conceit of having more texts of Scripture on my fide of the question than fhe had on her fide. As to St. James, I was almost ready to conclude, that he was not quite orthodox, and fo at last I did not much mind what he faid. Falfe opinions rooted in the mind, "Hood-wink the foul and keep our reafon blind. Hitherto I had not frequented the methodist meetings by the confent or knowledge of my master and mistress; nor had my zeal been fo great as to make me openly violate their commands. But as my zeal increased much faster than my knowledge, I foon difregarded their orders, and without hesitation ran away to hear a methodistical fermon as often as I could find opportunity. One Sunday morning, at eight o'clock, my mistress feeing her fons fet off, and knowing that they were gone to a methodist meeting, determined |