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sol-bed the attention of their hearers i professing" to receive their message immediately from , heaven , they as * suroed all the authority of inspired personages , and dealt about their ana * , theraas with an unsparing hand . Re *
solving all religion into the possession of a supefrnatural faith , they thought that those only who were thus mysteriously wrought upon , had any sensi * ble token of the DMne favour , coasidering the highest moral worth , without it , as bo better than splendid sin . A love of the marvellous is so
closely allied to ignorance , that it is a food easily digested by the common people . Unable to form any just conclusions themselves , they became a prey alternately to the passions of
hope and fear , and were t \ ius prepared to resign their consciences to their spiritual dictators . A religion thus taught and thus acquired , referring all the events of the present life to- the immediate interference of Providence ,
and providing a spiritual remedy for the various iils to which it is incident , is peculiarly adapted to the common people , which accounts for its success . But being at variance with good sense , and with any rational scheme of improvement , it must ever be confined within their precincts .
Whatever may have been the effect of Methodism ? in confirming the popular belief in its leading doctrines , and in reclaiming the people from vicious habits , no man who has watched its progress , and is qualified to proaounce an opinion upon the subject , can doubt for a moment that it has
had an injarious effect upon the interest of Nonconformity , whilst it has given vigour and stability to the National Church . I am well aware that it will be contended by a numerous class of persons , who are called
Dissenters , but in reality are no other than the spawn of Methodism , that , as the main end of preaching is the conversion of Burners , in comparison with which all other considerations are mere trifles , so this object can be attained as well in one place , and by
< me description of men as by another * without ? disputing- the truth df either of these propositions , I shall merely observe ; that they have nothing to cto with the . question af Dissent , which m fetancior fallaipQH consideration * Perfectly distinc * . If these are uot
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sufficient to warrant a separation , I cannot imagine any tol « rabh * pretence to justify its continuance . In tb £ Church of England / the State has j > rov vided ample means fo * the instruction of the people in the doctrines and duties of Christianity ; and she pos * -
sesses a numerous body of clergy who are zealously devoted to their work . But the same remark will apply equally to the Catholic Church , or to any other corrupted formr of Christianity . A dissent from the Church of England can only be justified upon one of the two following grounds : 1 . That the civil establishment of re * -
ligion is altogether useless of improper ; or , 2 . That the present Church of England is not the best adapted to answer the purposes of truth * and utility . Whoever leases it upon any
other ground has a motive for dissent that I cannot comprehend * As for the artifice above alluded to , it is altogether unworthy of notice in the controversy , any farther than as it has served to divert the attention from the
mam subject . * Since the rise of Methodism , the face of Nonconformity has been wholly changed , if , indeed , it has not been swallowed up in the vortex . The original principles of separation have
been nearly forgotten , or sacrificed to the shrine of custom ; whilst the passions have * been entirely absorbed in doctrinal contentions .. Scarcely known a » y longer as the three denominations , they are now distinguished by
the more popular designations of orthodox and heterodox , two named which carry enmity in their foreheads . Amongst both parties will be found persons holding various shades of opinion upon the subject of church
government ; approximating more or less to the National Church or receding from it ^ So m ^ are friendly to the principle of church establishments , although differing in opinion , upon their detail ^ whilst others * we hostile to the principle itself . As the Almighty has not seen fit to entail na ^
tural talent upon the belief of any particular theological tenets , and as uo sect lias / as yet , obtained an exclusive patent for private worth * so persons of both descriptions will be found in each party * as well a * some whose talents have been-improved by education * In point of numbers , the or *
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Jn Essay on tkd Causes of the Bedim of Nonconformity 38 &
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1823, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1786/page/21/
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