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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Miscellaneous Communications
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
Bridport , August 17 , 1815 . , Sir , IF you think the following observations on modern religious enthusiasm , tend to guard against its infl u-
ence , and to promote the cause of sober inquiry and Christian truth , your insertion of them in your valuable Repository will oblige your sincere friend and constant reader , THOMAS HOWE .
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In all ages men in whom melancholy has mixed with devotion , or whose conceit of themselves has raised them into an opinion : of a greater familiarity with God , and a nearer admittance to his favour , than is
afforded to others , have often flattered themselves with a persuasion of an immediate intercourse with the Deity , and frequent communications from the divine spirit . Locke .
To trace the errors which prevail among any class of religious professors to their genuine source , is a useful undertaking , as it tends , if not to convince them of their mistakes , to preserve other Christians from falling into them , and to induce them to
employ their reason and understanding in the examination of the records of divine truth . For want of this , what numbers of persons are daily deceived by religious pretensions , without sufficient ground to support them ' . They indeed Jiave no guard against either
enthusiasm or imposture , and both the one and the other may be traced among many Christian sects , to the mortification of the rational believer , end the triumph of the infidel . Among persons of this description , pretensions to communications immediately from heaven are not uncommon . The
reveries of a disordered fancy are mistaken for supernatural impressions , and prophetic dreams and extatic visions with which these favoured servants of the Lord suppose themselves to be Indulged , are the frequent theme of pious exultation- Illiterate
persons of strong feelings , a glowing imagination and ardent affections , united with a serious turn of mind , and a little of that human vanity from which even the saints are not wholly exempt , are fitly disposed , either to receive such supernatural communications themselves , or to give implicit credit to them in others . I mean not
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to assert that all religious enthusiasts are illiterate . Most of my readers probably recollect an instance some years ago of a gentleman * of considerable learning , and especially weu versed in eastern literature , who wrote a pamphlet on prophecy , and
delivered an eloquent harangue in the British House of Commons of which lie was a respectable member , in vindication of the wild predictions of the pitiable lunatic Brothers . This however may be considered only as au
exception to the general rule above stated , and it is truly mortifying to the pride of the human intellect , that the best and most accomplished is liable to perversions of various kinds . In the same class also may be put the late celebrated Rev . John
Wesley , who though by no means a profound scholar , had certainly a respectable portion of human learning . While perusing the journals published by him in the early part of his
ministry ( of which there are some curious extracts in Bishop Warburton ' s 'Doctrine of Grace' ) all sober persons , I presume , will be disposed to attribute the miracles of various kinds which
he relates respecting liimself , to an over-heated imagination which presented its delusions to his mind as real facts ; or to his ascribing to supernatural operation , what might be accounted for by natural means . Let the reader take the following
specimen : — "My horse was exceeding lame . We could not discern what it was that was amiss , and yet h 6 could scarce set bis foot on the ground . My head ached more than it had done for some months ( what I here aver is the naked fact , let every man
account for it as he sees good ) . I then thought , cannot God heal either man or beast , by any means , or without any ! Immediately my weariness and head-ache ceased , and my horse s lameness , in the same instant . ^
did he halt any more either that day or the next / ' Wesley ' s Journal from Oct . 27 , 1743 , to Nov . 17 , 1746- Up-Warburtonon the Doctrine of Gra < tf , p . 100 . It is evident Mr . Wesle y really > thought that a m iracle w ®> wrought in behalf of himself and W * Mr . Halhed .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 538, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/6/
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