568 Calvinistic Methodists. Cent. 18. several very spacious and elegant chapels in and about the metropolis. GEORGE WHITFIELD, being an avowed Calvinist, was considered by the most zealous Arminians, as an improper person to move with the Wesleys in the establishment of societies, the leading principles of which, were in direct opposition to the doctrines of predestinanation and particular redemption. Thus divided in sentiment, it was perhaps (without attaching blame to ei ther party) wise to move, each in a different line. But Whitfield was the preacher: his talent did not lie in the formation and execution of plans of legislation; consequently, those congregations collected by his labours were not united in so close a compact as those of the Wesleyan denomination. Some of the largest places of worship, out the establishment, were erected by Whitfield, two of which are in Loudon, the Tabernacle, and Tottenham Court Chapel; in the former of these, none of the formalities of the church are adopted, except kneeling at the communion: in the latter, the liturgy is used, with a strict regard to the rubric. Here ministers are invited to labour, without any regard to denomination, provided they be Calvinistic. At first, the fellow-labourers of Mr. Whitfield were chiefly laymen, other help not being to be obtained. The two houses are united under one trust, and superintended by the same ministers. This is not strictly the ease with those places in the country; many of these are become congregational, and others, though supplied by many of the same minis ters as labour in the London Tabernacle connexion, yet maintain a separate and independent government. Sinee the death of Mr. Whitfield, some few places have been built by his surviving fellow-labourers, or his immediate followers; the principal of these is Surry Chapel, on the Chap. 4. Talgarth College. 569 south side of the Thames, where, from the first, the Rev. Rowland Hill has spent the greater part of his ministerial labours, and been the instrument of collecting and maintaining a large and flourishing church. But as Mr. Whitfield furnished his societies with no bond of union, and these societies not agreeing to form any after his death, they have naturally become so many distinct and independent churches, some with, and some without, the congregational discipline. LADY HUNTINGDO, in the establishment of her churches, laid down a plan widely different from the former two. All her domestic chapels were at first served by regular clergy only; but these, at length, not being to be obtained, equal to the demand of her increasing interest, she founded a college at Talgarth, in Wales, where she long resided. From this seminary a number of young men issued forth to the help of the numerous congregations already raised, and zealously employed themselves in raising many more. The chapels of Brighton, Bath, and Tonbridge-Wells, were opened by Mr. Whitfield; to these have been added Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, and many others, with those large ones in London, Sion, and Spa Fields. In most of her ladyship's chapels the church ritual is the form of wor ship adopted but the ordination of ministers is without any regard to the episcopal canon. During the life of her ladyship, the government of these places was chiefly vested in herself; since her death, it rests principally with the London committee, by whom the ministers are appointed, according as the circumstances of time and place may require. Only in a few instances have ministers been allowed to settle, the original plan of moving from congregation to congregation being preferred. 570 Cheshunt College. Cent. 18. Important as were the life, fortune, and patronage of Lady Huntingdon, her connexion suffered not at her death, as was feared; great exertions were made by her surviving friends, and the congregations continued to flourish. The college in Wales ceased with her ladyship's life; but a new one, on a more eligible plan, sueceeded immediately at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, raised and established by the united efforts of the congrega. tions at large. In this seminary, as well as in that of Wales a predilection was maiutained in favour of the established church, into which some of the students have gone, while many more have settled among dissenters; but a large proportion continues still to labour in that connexion, to which they owe the character, influence, and success with which they have been honoured. From this Christian body, some societies have broken off, and formed themselves into separate eburches: these, with others of a like cast, must fall under notice in a subsequent chapter. From a review of the principles and success of these three great, but new, orders of British protestants, it ap pears that the influence of the established church has been considerably lessened, and the number of her at tendants greatly reduced. This is to be accounted for upon a combination of causes: lukewarmness among the episcopal clergy; the fathers of methodism being of the church of England, and warmly attached to the articles and liturgy; and their colleagues and followers adopting in their public measures a catholie and popular system, carefully avoiding the niceties of dissenterism, by which they gained upon the people, and converted them to their opinions, and fixed them in their societies, before these proselytes were even apprehensive of a departure from their mother church. CHAPTER V. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. State of Religion in the Established Church-RomaineEvangelical Clergy-Sectaries-Question on Conformity-Scots establishment-Sectaries. THE most formidable, and ultimately the most suceessful attack upon error, will be found to consist in a simple and steady assertion of the truth. Disputings are almost endless, because rather than tending to convince and silence, they awaken new controversies, and add fresh adversaries to the list. A spirit of controversy generally exhausts the vital fluids of religion, and leaves behind a dry and barren frame of mind. The consequence then is, that the great adversary, finally, though imperceptibly, gains by those very measures instituted for his defeat. These observations seem to apply to the state of things as they appeared in the English churches during the first part of the eighteenth century. Both churchmen and dissenters were employing their choicest powers against the attacks of popery and the inroads of infidelity; and white they were thus engaged, the grand truths of the gospel were kept too much in the back ground: the consequence was, men became philosophical and speculative in their religious attainments, rather than serious and devoted in the exercise of vital and practical godliness. In the established church, this was remarkably the case; and the more so, from a prevailing dislike to 572 William Romaine. Cent. 18. evangelical doctrines, which spirit had been for years increasing upon its ministers. The public instructions of the pulpit consisted chiefly in cold ethical discourses, or in laboured defences of the mere out-works of religion, while the peculiar and heart-animating truths of Christianity were laid aside. During this state of things, the methodist clergy burst forth to awaken and stir up their slumbering brethren. Some of these, as we have seen. refused to settle in the church and conform to the established canon; but these being suffered occasionally to conform, were reckoned, notwithstanding all their irregularity, among the sons of the church. In the course of a few years, we find several clergymen of evangelical principles zealously labouring in various parts of the kingdom, strictly observing those rules enjoined by their epispocal superiors: among these, Mr. Romaine held a long and successful career; thirty years rector of Blackfriars, and forty years lecturer of St. Dunstan in the West, ten years having preceeded the longest of these periods, which were spent in a less conspicuous part of the Lord's vineyard. This great man, when he entered on his lectureship at St. Dunstan's, suffered much opposition, and had not above one regular evangelical coadjutor in all the metropolis, and but very few throughout all the nation; yet such was their augmentation before his death, which took place A. D. 1795, that it was difficult to ascertain their exact number; and to the present day they have continued to increase with all the increase of God. This vast accession of primitive clergy to the establishment, has not risen from episcopal patronage and good-will, for in their host they enrolled not the prelates; scarcely any of the dignitaries looked upon them, but with a jealous eye: a small proportion of them were in possession of |