the minister was (as it is called) preaching about For, "Who a cold, dull, lifeless drawling keeps, One half his audience laughs, whilst t'other sleeps. * Sermons, like plays, some please us at the ear, That from the pulpit seem'd but sorry stuff. Why not? you cry: they plainly see, no doubt- ART OF PREACHING. I am, dear friend, yours. LETTER VI. Youth is the stock whence grafted superstition MILLER'S Mahomet. -All must lament that he's under such banners, As evil community spoils our good manners." DEAR FRIEND, SIMKIN. Ar the time that I was bound apprentice, my master had two sons, the eldest about seventeen years old, the youngest fourteen. The eldest had just been baptized, and in troducedas a member of the Arianistical dipping community where my master and his family attended. The boy was a very sober indus trious youth, and gave his father and mother much pleasure. The youngest was also a good lad. Thus everything continued well for some time after I had been added to the family. Both of the boys had very good natural parts, and had learned to read, write, keep accounts, &c. But they had been at schools where no variety of books had been introduced, so that all they had read was the bible. My master's whole library consisted of a school-size bible, Watts's Psalms and Hymns, Foot's Tract on Baptism, Culpepper's Herbal, the History of the Gentle Craft, an old imperfect volume of Receipts in Physic, Surgery, &c., and the Ready Reckoner. The ideas of the family were as circumscribed as their library. My master called attention to business and working hard, Iminding the main chance." On Sundays all went to meeting; my master on that day said a short grace before dinner, and the boys read a few chapters in the bible, took a walk for an hour or two, then read a chapter or two more. (6 "What right, what true, what fit we justly call, They then supped, and went early to bed, perfectly satisfied with having done their duty; and each having a quiet conscience soon fell into the arms of "nature's soft nurse, sweet sleep." "And thus whatever be our station, We feel peculiar consolation, And taste of happiness a share." HORACE IMITATED. I cannot here omit mentioning a very singular custom of my master's: every morning, at all seasons of the year, and in all weathers, he rose about three o'clock, took a walk by the river side round Frenchware-field, stopped at an alehouse that was early open, to drink half a pint of ale, came back before six o'clock, then called up his people to work, and went to bed again about seven. Thus was the good man's family jogging easily and quietly on, no one doubting but he should go to heaven when he died, and every one hoping it would be a good while first. "A man should be religious, not superstitious." But, alas! the dreadful crisis was at hand that put an end to the happiness and peace of this little family. I had been an apprentice about twelve or fifteen months, when my master's eldest son George happened to go and hear a sermon by one of Mr Wesley's preachers, and who had left the plough-tail to preach the pure and unadulterated Gospel of Christ. By this sermon the fallow ground of poor George's heart was ploughed up, he was now persuaded that the innocent and good life he had led would only sink him deeper into hell; in short, he found out that he had never been converted, and of course was in a state of damnation without benefit of clergy. But he did not long continue in this damnable state, but soon became one of -The sanctified band, Who all holy mysteries well understand." SIMKIN. He persuaded himself that he had passed through the new birth, and was quite sure that his name was registered in the Book of Life, and (to the great grief of his parents) he was in reality become a new creature. "'Twas methodistic grace that made him toss and tumble, Which in his entrails did like jalap rumble." OVID's Epist. Burlesqued. George had no sooner made things sure for himself, than he began to extend his concern to his father, mother, brother, and me; and very kindly gave us to understand that he was sure we were in a very deplorable state, "without hope, and without God in the world," being under the curse of the "For all enthusiasts, when the fit is strong, FENTON. In the long winter nights, as we sat at work together, he proved (in his way) that every man had original sin enough to damn a thousand souls; and a deal was said on that subject. A passage was quoted from the wise determination of the doctors of the Sorbonne, where they say that children inclosed in their mother's womb are liable to damnation if they die there unbaptized. Quotations were also made from some deep author who had asserted, that there "infants in hell but a span long ;" and that "hell was paved with infant sculls," &c. were "Thus feigning to adore, make thee, As if thy right hand did contain Only a universe of pain, Hell and damnation in thy left, Of ev'ry gracious gift bereft, Hence reigning floods of grief and woes, As to morality, George assured us it was of no avail; that as for good works they were only splendid sins; and that in the best good work that any creature could perform, there was sin enough to sink the doer to the nethermost hell; that it was faith alone that did everything, without a grain of morality; but that no man could have one particle of this mysterious faith before he was justified; and justification was a sudden operation on the soul, by which the most execable wretch that ever lived might instantaneously be assured of all his sins being pardoned; that his body from that very moment became the living temple of the Holy Ghost; that he had fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and, that Spirit was to be their constant and infallible guide: "Whate'er men speak by this new light, Which none see by but those that bear it; BUTLER. My master very seldom heard any of these conversations, but my good mistress would sit down for hours together with her bible in her lap, from which she would read such scriptures as proved the necessity of living a good life, performing good works, &c.; she also did her best to confute the tenets of original sin, imputed righteousness, doctrine of the Trinity, &c. &c. Unfortunately the good woman had no great talents for controversy; however, George had a very tenacious memory, and employed all his thoughts on these subjects, so that John his younger brother, and I also (two competent judges no doubt) thought that he had the best of the arguments on these edifying subjects. "Nothing," says Montaigne, "is so firmly believed as that which we least know;" for which reason Plato said, "that it was more easy to satisfy his hearers, with discourses about the nature of the gods than of men." About five months after George's conversion, John went to hear those only true am. bassadors from heaven, "Who stroll and teach from town to town |