gives offence to those who are too ready to feek it: in which case they run after some better way, and are easily made a prey of. The Marks of Enthufiafm. It affects great and extraordinary fervours of devotion, above the measure of other men; and difcourages the piety of fober Chriftians, as formal and lifelefs. The proof of its pretenfions being not in its fruits, but in its feelings, which are evidence only to the person himself; it refuses to be brought to a trial, and so is above conviction. Thus did the Montanifts, when the Catholic bishops would have exorcifed Maximilla. G. Keith accepted the repeated challenges of the Quakers, and would have met them at Turner's-hall; but they fhuffled and refused to come. They are not obliged to answer any thing; having an inward testimony that they are right, and all others wrong; and to question this, is to querich the fpirit, and defpife prophefyings: fo it is impoffible they fhould be reclaimed. Enthusiasm rarely fails to betray great contempt of the priesthood, hierarchy, government, difcipline, and fucceffion of the church; and depreciates the church itfelf, as if nothing were meant by it but a building with stone-walls. It defpifes the neceffary labour of ftudy.. Forty years were requifite to form an Andrews; but an ordinary perfun, if a gifted enthusiast, shall be far beyond him in a few days. Hence fchools and univerfities may be laid afide. The enthufiaft has charity for every thing but the church; because the church only has the form of found doctrine, with the hiftory of truth and error from the beginning; and fo can bring to nothing their boasted sanctity and pretended revelations; therefore they cannot speak of the church with patience, nor bear with a churchman. The affectation of fuperior aufterity, is a grand delufion, by which deceivers impofe upon the fimple. The Montanifts, in the first centuries, defpifed the Catholics as a carnal people, because they themselves oftentatiously practifed greater mortification and severity. As to convulfions, roarings, ravings, and falling fenfelefs on the ground, &c. these ever were the marks of a dæmoniac, not of the fpirit of Chrift, which is first pure, then peace. able. Montanus therefore was reckoned poffeffed; and the Quakers in this country had all the figns of it, as Mr. Leflie has * See Loflie's Works, Vol. II. 253. fully fhewn in his writings against them, wherein a strange mys tery of iniquity is detected. Few people know at this day what the Quakers were at their first fetting out. The Character of Enthufiafm. ENTHUSIASM has no principle but imagination; to which it has committed itself: and when there is no rule but fancy and impulfe, every thing a man does is right, and he can think himfelf in the exaltation of charity, when he is in the gall of bitternefs. He rifes to a sphere above others, from whence he looks down upon them with difdain, which he calls piety. From a loofe, idle, and disorderly life (for so it hath often happened) he is converted without repentance, and commences teacher without knowledge. He finds latitudinarianifm very convenient, and can take the colour of every company he is in. He thinks well of every thing but a churchman; yet he can keep himself within the church, while he makes his court to her enemies. He boasts that he has conquered the fear of man, when he is past shame or feeling. A certain perfon, who after a profligate life, took to the reading of Mr. Law, without preparatory knowledge, fell into a state of great mortification; preferred fafting to the facrament, and told his friends he received more benefit by it. He foon began to talk freely of the other facrament; decried infant baptism, and and all water baptismn*: and the church having fet apart Wedne{days and Fridays, as days of mortification, he fixed on Monday as his fafting day. He waited for new revelations to his mind, while he neglected that already given, which is fufficient for every purpose. He fpake flightly of an acquaintance, as having once been in a fair way to be a Chriftian. The fact was this: that acquaintance had been inftructed from his childhood in the Holy In a history of the church, during the three first centuries, by Mr. Milner, tho following obfervation occurs on the facrament of baptifm:-" In Cyprian's time, to call baptifm itself the new-birth was not very dangerous. In our age it is poifon itself; for it has long been the fashion to fuppofe all baptized perfons regenerate of course." P. 358. It does not appear how baptifm and the new-birth can be separate things, when the express words of our blessed Saviour-BÓRN of WATER—have joined them together: neither do we know who has been poijoned by any established false doctrine concerning baptifm; when the church teaches us to pray for spiritual regeneration, and beavenly virtues, and that every baptized Christian may lead the rest of his life according to that beginning. If the Gospel does not promife the new-birth to water-baptifm, where and when doth it teach us to expect it without baptifm? Scripture, which enabled him to see through the deception, and avoid it. The Evils of Enthusiasm. ENTHUSIASM has been the root of the greatest evils that have befallen the Chriftian church. From this arofe the Popish legends of their faints, which have been used as instruments, in the hands of evil-minded perfons, to induce them to reject the belief of the real miracles of Chrift and his Apoftles: and from hence our several forts of Diffenters took their rife; till they were once fettled and established, and then dropt it by degrees, because it would unfettle themselves. It is a perfect oppofition to all rule or government; and there can be no order kept where it is admitted. Among the other evils of Enthufiafm, it is not the least, that a difgrace is thereby brought on all appearances of godly zeal, and Christian piety. An evil word goes out against a good man, and the effect of his labours is leffened, if not entirely defeated. The best gold may be brought under fufpicion, if malice takes advantage of the counterfeits that are abroad, with defign to poison the ignorant, who know not how to diftinguish. Thus faid the Jews of our bleffed Saviour," he hath a devil, and is mad, why hear ye him?" At the time of Chrift's miniftry, many were poffeffed by devils; and the fact being true in general, would be credited of any particular; but the scandal was raised by persons 66 Preface to the Snake in the Grass, p. 12. "Extraordinary inspirations are not to be credited, unless vouchfafed by miracles, which God always fent to atteft an extraordinary commission. And if they are pretended to come from him, and do not, we are fure they must come from the devil. "Enthusiasts have no principles: they have no rule but their own fancy, which is strongest in madmen: and this they mistake for infpiration, and then their madness is at the height. It is as inconftast as the wind; for they can promise themselves nothing for an hour together. “Enthusiasm is an art, by which we impose upon ourselves as well as upon others. They say a man may tell a lie, till he comes to believe it himself: and a strong enthusiastic habit may fix a man's thoughts upon a beloved object, till it dazzles his understanding, and glares fo in his fight, that the worst abfurdities will go down, and the highest blasphemy obtain the character of piety and devotion. It is a fatal mistake of the foul, and generally irrecoverable, when it falls in love with its own difeafe. In a calenture, the unhappy patient mistakes an unfathomable ocean for a pleasant field, as the enthusiast mistakes prefumption and blafphemy for holy contemplation and humility; which, in effect, is mistaking hell itself for heaven."[From Bishop Herae's Remarks on the latter Writings of Mr. Law. who had neither godliness nor honefty. And if he who fpake as never man fpake, and confirmed his word with miracles and figns, could not escape the fouleft cenfure, the best man upon earth, be his caution and prudence what it will, can hardly preferve an uninjured reputation: they that fcrupled not to call the Master of the house Beelzebub, will never fpare those of his household. The character of a fober Chriftian will always be in danger from two forts of people, the lukewarm, and the fanatic; from those who have too much religion, and those who have too little. With the former fort his piety will be lifeless and formal; and the latter will brand him for an enthufiaft. Thus it was, and thus it ever will be true piety, like all other virtue, is in the middle, between two extremes. The Prevention and Cure. THE caufes of Enthusiasm being known, its cure must be op pofite to its causes, on the principle of what the phyficians call medicina contraria. If Enthusiasm arifes from ignorance of the ́Scripture, and the doctrine and discipline of the primitive church, let the Scripture be studied, and the religion of the first Christians enquired into. One way to be fecured against any root of evil, is to fee and confider the fruits of it; and the fruits of Enthusiasm, with all its extravagances, were never more confpicuous than in our English Quakers; whose errors are completely laid open in Mr. Leflie's Snake in the Grafs; a piece too curious and useful to be neglected and there is a preface to it, (already quoted) defcribing the enthusiasm of Antonia Bourignon: fhewing, from her example, the marks by which Enthusiasm may be known, and detecting it under all its disguises. To that preface the reader is referred for any thing that may be wanting in these short obfervations. N. B. The above discourse, though excellent for its method and matter, is written with fuch abbreviations and references in the author's manufcript, that the Editor has been obliged fometimes to interpret, and fometimes to fill it up to the best of his judgment. s SCH IS M. TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE RELATING TO IT. IT T tends to fubvert the kingdom of Chrift. Matth. xii. 25. "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desola❝tion; and every city or houfe divided against itself fhall not "ftand." It is a work of the flesh. 1 Cor. iii. 3. Ye are yet "carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, "and divifions, dixosaσial, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" Gal. v. 19, 20, "The works of the flefh are manifeft, which "are thefe, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, ftrife, feditions, "herefies." 2 Tim. iv. 3. "The time will come when they "will not endure found doctrine, but after their own LUSTS "they fhall heap to themfelves teachers, having itching ears. "And they fhall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall ❝be turned unto fables. But WATCH thou in all things, &c." 2. Pet. ii. 10. "The Lord referves the unjust unto the day of ❝ judgment to be punished; but chiefly them that walk after the "fleft, in the luft of uncleannefs, and defpife government: pre "fumptuous are they, felf-willed; they are not afraid to speak ❝evil of dignities." Jude 8. "Thefe filthy dreamers defile "the flesh, defpife dominion, and speak evil of dignities." II. "Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain." 18. "They [the Apostles] told you there fhould be mockers in the "last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lufts. These "be they who separate themselves, fenfual, having not the spirit." Jam. iii. 13. "Who is a wife man, and endued with knowledge "among you? Let him fhew out of a good converfation his "works with meeknefs of wisdom. But if ye have bitter "envyings and ftrife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not "against the truth. This wisdom defcendeth not from above, "but is earthly, fenfual, devilish. For where envying and |