With knowledge, and do still invite
The world to mischief with new light."

BUTLER.

These devil-dodgers happened to be so very powerful (that is, very noisy) that they soon sent John home crying out, he should be damn'd! he should be damn'd for ever!

But John soon got out of the damnable state, and assured us that all his sins were forgiven, merely by believing that he had passed from death into life, and had union and communion with God. He now became as merry as before he had been sorrowful, and sang in Mr Wesley's strain,

"Not a doubt shall arise

To darken the skies,

Nor hide for a moment my God from my eyes."

John sang to me, and said to me a deal in this wonderful strain, of which I did not comprehend one syllable.

As heaps of sand, and scatter'd wide from sense.
So high he mounted in his airy throne,
That when the wind had got into his head,

It turn'd his brains to frenzy."

But these extraordinary accounts and discourses, together with the controversies between the mother and the sons, made me think they knew many mat.. ters of which I was totally ignorant. This created in me a desire for knowledge, that I might know who was right and who was wrong. But to my great mortification, I could not read. I knew most of the letters, and a few easy words, and I set about learning with all my might. My mistress would sometimes instruct me, and having three-halfpence per week lowed me by my mother, this money John (my master's youngest son) and for every threegave, to lfpence he taught me to spell one hour. This was

1

done in the dark, as we were not allowed a candle after we were sent up stairs to bed.

I soon made a little progress in reading; in the mean time I also went to the Methodist meeting There, as "enthusiasm is the child of melancholy,' I caught the infection. The first that I heard was one Thomas Bryant, known in Taunton by the name of the Damnation Preacher (he had just left off cobbling soles of another kind.) His sermon frightened me most terribly. I soon after went to hear an old Scotchman, and he assured his congregation that they would be damned, and double damned, and treble damned, and damned for ever, if they died without what he called faith.

"Conj'rers like, on fire and brimstone dwell,
And draw each moving argument from hell."
SOAME JENYNS.

This marvellous doctrine and noisy rant and enthusiasm soon worked on my passions, and made me believe myself to be really in the damnable condition that they represented; and in this miserable state I continued for about a month, being all that time unable to work myself up to the proper key.

At last, by singing and repeating enthusiastic amorous hymns, and ignorantly applying particular texts of scripture, I got my imagination to the proper pitch, and thus was I born again in an instant, became a very great favourite of heaven,

"And with my new invented patent eyes,
Saw heav'n and all the angels in the skies."
PETER PINDAR.

I had angels to attend all my steps, and was as fami liar with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as any old woman in Mr Wesley's connection; which, by the bye, is saving a great deal.

I am, dear sir, yours

LETTER VII.

"No sleep, no peace, no rest
Their wand'ring and afflicted minds possess'd
Upon their souls and eyes
Hell and eternal horror lies,
Unusual shapes and images,
Dark pictures and resemblances
Of things to come, and of the worlds below,
O'er their distemper'd fancies go:

Sometimes they curse, sometimes they pray unto
The gods above, the gods beneath;

No sleep, but waking now was sister unto death."
BISHOP SPRAT.

DEAR FRIEND,

Ir is perhaps worth remarking, that what the Methodists call conviction of sin, being awakened, &c. is often a most dreadful state, and has the very same effect on such as have lived a very innocent life as it has upon the most notorious offenders; this conviction (as they call it) is brought about by the preachers heaping all the curses in the bible on the heads of the most virtuous as well as most vicious; for, say they, he who keepeth the whole law and offendeth but in one point, is as much in a state of damnation, as he that hath broken every one of the commandments, or committed robbery, murder, &c. so that they pour out every awful denunciation found in the bible, and many not found there, against all who have not the methodistical faith. This they call shaking the people over the mouth of hell, and they in reality believe

"That cruel God, who form'd us in his wrath,
fo plague, oppress, and torture us to death,
Who takes delight to see us in despair,
And is more happy, the more curs'd we are,
In vain all nature smiles, but man alone,

He's form'd more perfect and was made to groan.”
YOUNG OFFICER'S TRIFLES.

Thus are many who before possessed

"consciences

void of offence towards God and mankind” tricked out of their peace of mind, by the ignorant application of texts of scripture. Their fears being once so dreadfully alarmed, they often become insupportable to themselves and all around them; many in this state have put a period to their existence, others run mad, &c.

Oh! would mankind but make great truths their guide,
And force the helm from prejudice and pride;

Were once these maxims fix'd, that God's our friend,
Virtue our good, and happiness our end;

How soon must reason o'er the world prevail,

And error, fraud, and superstition fail Î

None would hereafter then with groundless fear,
Describe th' Almighty cruel and severe."

SOAME JENYNS's Epistle to Hon. P. York.

If the above terror of conscience was only to take place in knaves and rascals, there would be no reason for blaming the Methodists on that head; "the wretch deserves the hell he feels." A terrible instance of this kind happened near London bridge about two years since; a person in a lucrative branch of business had put unbounded confidence in his head shopman, and well rewarded him for his supposed faithfulness. One morning, this man not coming down stairs so soon as usual, the servant maid went up to call him, and found him hanging up to the bed-post: she had the presence of mind to cut him down, but he being nearly dead, it was some days before he perfectly recovered.

On his master coming to town, he was informed of what had happened to his favourite shopman; he heard the relation with the utmost astonishment, and took great pains to discover the cause of so fatal a resolution, but to no purpose. However, he endea voured to reconcile this unhappy man to life, was very tender towards him, and gave him more encouragement than ever; but the more the master did to

encourage and make him happy, the more the poor wretch appeared to be dejected; in this unhappy state of mind he lived about six months, when one morning not appearing at his usual time, the servant maid went to see if he was well, and found him very weak in bed; a day or two after, his master came to town, and being told of his situation, went up to see him, and finding him in bed, and apparently very ill, proposed sending for a physician, but the poor devil refused to take anything, and rejected every assistance, saying his time was nearly come. Soon after this the servant informed her master that he would not have the bed made, and that she had just observed some blood on one corner of the sheet. The master then went up stairs again, and by lifting up the bed-clothes found that he had stabbed himself in several places and that in this state he had lain three or four days. "When innocence and peace are gone, How sad, how teazable to live!"

SECUNDUS.

On the surgeon's appearance, he refused to have the wounds inspected, and the surgeon being of opinion that it was too late to render him any kind of service, they let him lie still. The master soon after this pressed him much to know the mysterious cause of so much misery, and so unnatural an end. The dying wretch exclaimed, “a wounded conscience, who can bear." The master then endeavoured to comfort him, and assured him that his conscience ought not to wound him. "I know you (continued he) to be a good man, and the best of servants." "Hold! hold!" exclaimed the wretch," your words are daggers to my soul! I am a villain, I have robbed you of hundreds, and have long suffered the tortures of the damned for being thus a concealed villain; every act of kindness shewn to me by you has been long like vultures tearing my vitals. Go, sir, leave me, the sight of you causes me to suffer excruciating tortures; he then shrunk under the bed-clothes, and the same night