Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

gravate my dreadful fufferings. Sufferings of which religion no, let me not wrong the name -of which enthusiasm, antinomianism, have been the fatal cause.

It is fcarce to be conceived, and many perhaps who read this, will not believe, that rational creatures should by any means be brought to fancy themselves in the highest degree of the divine favour, while they are neglecting, nay, trampling upon, the most facred of God's laws; that any should apprehend, they are peculiarly interested in the bleffed Redeemer's blood, while they live in that fin, and contemn that holiness; the former of which his blood was fhed to expiate, the latter of which it was given to promote. But forry am I to say, there are numbers; forry I am to fay, I have myself converfed with numbers,-but most forry am I to fay, that their minifters of Satan, have made my wife one of that number, and taught her to defpife the duties of the wife, of the mother, of the friend, of the woman, for the fuperlative happiness, as they esteem it, of a spiritual union with that dear Jefus, upon whom she now rolls herself, and in whom the now wraps herself, as in a garment. Pardon me, good Sir, for using thefe expreffions; I almoft fhudder while I use them; but blafphemy of them will be excufed me, when I declare, that they are fuch as are most familiar in the mouths of this deluded people.

[blocks in formation]

One of these enthusiasts, with her religious prating, firft enveigled my wife, to attend her to the tabernacle, and fhe quickly caught the fatal and contagious fire. A change in my family affairs was foon difcernible. When I ufed to return from my office to dinner, weary with writing, and expecting a little comfortable refreshment at home, disappointment generally chagrin'd me; my wife was abroad; my two poor little infants were dirty, ragged, neglected; no preparations were making for dinner; and I had nothing to feed upon, but difcontent and uneafinefs. If I remonftrated, as my poor wife was rather of a warm temper, the confequences were always unpleafing: fhe would tell me, "that the care of the foul was the one thing needful : that this was more precious than all things befide; that fhe muft and would go, where she could hear about her fweet Saviour; and that fhe wifhed, I was as mindful of this grand concern as fhe." I would tell her in return, "that I had no less a regard for my foul than herself, and was as well convinced of its fuperlative value that I had an efteem and love for the ever adorable Redeemer, equal to any thing she could pretend to; and that she was well convinced I had ever lived, as one that looked for a better world. That I conceived an attendance upon our parish church, where we had excellent minifters, twice every Sunday, was fuffi

cient, especially as we took care to have family devotion in our houfe twice a day, and frequently read approved books of piety. I hinted, that hearing Seven or eight fermons every day (which was very commonly her cafe) could not, in my judgment, produce any good effect: it was overcharging the head. And I used to conclude, with telling her, that St. Paul, against whose advice she could have no objection, enjoins it upon wives and mothers, to do the duties of thofe relations."

:

But alas, Sir, all my remonftrances were vain For my wife had imbibed principles, which utterly fuperfeded all thefe confiderations. She had deferted her first friends, at the Tabernacle, &c. as too legal for her-though, God knows, they had fet her loose enough to duty! -And was now admitted, as a member, in a congregation of Antinomians, the head of which is as subtle and fophifticated as his doctrine is diabolical and peftiferous. Their grand principle is, that Chrift, being the reprefentative of mankind, or rather the aggregate of all mankind in his own perfon, took upon him all the fins, and fuffered for them, as well as performed all the obedience, neceffary for all men. Infomuch that every man as much obeyed in him, as if he had himself personally done what Chrift did. So that now no man has any thing more to do than to believe, that Chrift, as his repre

B 3

representative, lived, obeyed and died; and, in confequence of that, he is entitled to all he hath done. “What should we pray for," say they? Chrift prays for us, and he is always heard? What should we obey for? Chrift obeyed, and his obedience is complete. We are in him, our fins are his, done away by him; they are no fins in us: our life is hid with him in heaven, Here below we are incumbered with flesh, it is true; but that flesh is nothing to us. We believe, and are entered into reft.”

Thefe, Sir, are the precious tenets my wife imbibed; and to teach me thefe, fhe brought to my house, and dragged me to the meetings of, Ry and C-th: And these worthies applied all their jefuistical arts to convert me. I remember one day, when I told R-y, "Sir, Christ as plainly delivers precepts, and enjoins duties, in his divine word, as the fun fhines in the heavens." "Yes, replied he, with a smile of contempt, he does fo; but do you confider to whom he delivers them, not to you or to me, but to HIMSELF! To his own glorious felf! He preached to himself, as our reprefentative, and as only capable to fulfil thofe precepts for us, which we could never fulfil. This is a point univerfally mistaken." "In truth, faid I, well it might, and it had been good for mankind, if they had never been fet right in it by fuch gentlemen as you.' "Sir, I could fill twen

ty

ty news-papers, with their horrid doctrines and vile perverfions of fcripture. But I hasten to a conclufion, as a proof of the malignant tendency of their principles.

My diforder, the confequence, in fome meafure, of a fedentary life, encreafed upon me, which my domeftic vexations, without controverfy, augmented. My wife faw me lying in the greateft torments, unpitied; and when I wanted comfort, would only preach and tell me, that it was the punishment of my fins, and efpecially of my hardness of heart; that I deferved it, and much more; and that I fhould die in my iniquities, unconvinced, and more callous than the nether mill-ftone. At length, by the advice of a phyfician, I went to a village near town, where I gained a little ftrength; but guefs at my horror and furprize, to find, at my return, my doors locked, my goods feized, and fold; my wife removed, and gone I knew not whither, and my helpless children exposed to distress! Few minds could support this. I have been ever fince in a state of moft unutterable anguish, both of body and mind: my corporal fufferings have affected my foul, and the ftrange religious disputes I have heard, have so disturbed my reason, that I am on the brink of the blackest despair. I have no comfort to alleviate my exceeding uneafinefs; and though I have carnestly

B 4

« AnteriorContinuar »