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pose that as this occurred frequently, the efficacy of it was destroyed:-but, no; though we often knew what was coming, it was as new to us as though we had never heard it before." Jay's Life of Winter. Such painting Ralph Erskine had witnessed, and the effect of it upon the people led him to say, They see a beautiful and glorious person presented to their imagination, or to their bodily eye. What a devil, instead of Christ, is this!" "Never, think, did Satan appear as an angel of light, so evidently, as in the delusive spirit now spreading." Sermons.

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man."

On the other hand, Robe and some of his brethren founded a theory upon the vivid images thus produced; and argued that "imaginary ideas of Christ as man, belonged to saving faith; or at least, were helpful to the faith of His being GodFraser. Ralph Erskine replied to this theory, in a work, entitled, "Faith no Fancy, or a Treatise of Mental Images." Well might Fraser say of this book, "it is not every where level to mere ordinary capacities." It is not, indeed! It proves, however, that the author was a man of extraordinary capacity; and could be as much at home amongst the depths of metaphysics as amongst the heights of poetry or devotion. It is said, that Reid found in this work the principles on which he afterwards built his System of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. If he did, happily he did not draw the spirit of his philosophy from it. The treatise certainly displays "an extraordinary degree of metaphysical acuteness:" but if it prove any thing against such mental images as Whitefield created, and Robe commended, it stultifies the author's "GOSPEL SONNETS;" for they are "chambers of imagery." It is not necessary to illustrate this retort, to those who have read both the poetry and the philosophy of Ralph Erskine; and the point of it could not be explained to those who have not read both. Suffice it to say, that his sonnets refute his system, and have survived it, although they are often as fantastical as they are devotional.

It is amusing to read the charges and disclaimers of the parties in Scotland, upon the subject of religious liberty. The Associate Presbytery gravely charged the revivalists in the kirk "with pleading for a boundless toleration and liberty of conscience: " no great crime, as we now judge. Not so, however, did the revivalists of that day deem it. The impu

tation roused then, however, the Scotch blood of even the kind-hearted and liberal Robe. "Where and when did we that?" he exclaims. "I know none of my brethren ever did it and I am so far conscious of my innocence, that I insist upon your making your charge good. If you do not, as I am sure you cannot, it is no pleasure to me, that you give reason to the world to reckon you slanderers." How true it is, that nations are

"slowly wise, and meanly just; "

and that even good men are seldom wiser than their times! Whitefield's visits would have been a blessing to Scotland, had they led to nothing but a canvassing of the rights of conscience; for he was far ahead of both parties on the subject of religious liberty.

Another handle against the Cambuslang and Kilsyth revivals, was, the physical effects of the awakening. "We have convulsions instead of convictions," said Erskine. He might, and ought to have known, that this was not true of one in six of the converts. "They are greatly mistaken who imagine that all those who have been observably awakened, have come under faintings, tremblings, or other bodily distresses. These have been by far the fewest number." Robe. Notwithstanding this assurance from the principal witness, the Erskines went on to confound the exceptions with the rule, in these conversions. Even in 1765, the editor of Ralph's Sermons kept up this misrepresentation, and said, in a note, "the subjects of the extraordinary work" were "strangely agitated by strong convulsions, fearful distortions, foamings, and faintings." This is caricature, not history. In 1742, the instances of "conversion carried on in a calm, silent, quiet manner, for six months, are the more numerous and unquestionable." Robe. Whitefield's visit occurred in this period. Besides, even Ralph Erskine himself could not always prevent, though he reproved, "clamorous noise," under his own ministry. FAITH NO FANCY. Appendix to Preface. But these effects have been sufficiently explained in the American department of this volume.

It would be wrong, after having quoted so often from Ralph Erskine's Sermons, were I not to say even of the sermons which are most disfigured with tirades against White

field and the revivals, that they are full of evangelical truth, and flaming with love to immortal souls, and as faithful to the conscience, as any that Whitefield preached at Cambuslang. Indeed, had they been preached on the braehead, at the great sacrament there, Erskine would as surely have "slain his hundreds," as Whitefield did "his thousands."

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ON returning from Cambuslang to London, Whitefield found, says Gillies, "the Tabernacle enlarged, and a new awakening begun. As might be expected, he was just in the right spirit for turning both facilities to the best account. Remembering the unction he enjoyed in Scotland, he wrote to a friend on arriving at London, "I feel it-I feel it now, and long to preach again!" When he did, he soon had occasion to inform one of his Cambuslang companions, "Our glorious Emmanuel blesses in like manner, now he has brought me to England."

This flourishing state of the Tabernacle society, now equally large and harmonious, enabled him to forget all his old grievances, and to renew his wonted spirit towards the Wesleys. They were then triumphing gloriously at Newcastle, and he "heartily rejoiced" in their success. He wrote to one of their friends thus:-"I am dead to parties now, and freed from the pain which, on that account, once disturbed the peace of my soul. I redeem time from sleep rather than your letter should not be answered."

His letters at this time are full of a holy impatience to get out of his "winter-quarters," pleasant as they were, and to enter upon a "fresh campaign." His old friends in the country, and especially in Wales, were crying out for him, to do there what he had done in Scotland. He could not, however, gratify them at once. Persecution had begun to harrass some of his coadjutors in Wales and Wiltshire; and therefore he kept upon his vantage ground in London, to expose and defeat it. Accordingly he appealed thus to the bishop of Bangor, on behalf of Cennick, who had been "shamefully used" in that diocese: "In Wales they have little fellowship meetings, where some well-meaning people meet together, simply to tell what God hath done for their souls. In some of these meetings, I believe, Mr. C. used to tell his ex

perience, and to invite his companions to come and be happy in Jesus Christ. He is therefore indicted, as holding a conventicle; and this, I find, is the case of one if not two more. Now, my lord, these persons, thus indicted, as far as I can judge, are loyal subjects to his Majesty, and true friends to, and attendants upon, the church of England service. You will see by the letters (I send with this) how unwilling they are to leave her. And yet, if all those acts against persons meeting to plot against church and state, were put in execution against them, what must they do? They must be obliged to declare themselves dissenters. I assure your lordship it is a critical time for Wales. Hundreds, if not thousands, will go in a body from the church, if such proceedings are countenanced. I lately wrote them a letter, dissuading them from separating from the church and I write thus freely to your lordship, because I would not have such a fire kindled in or from your lordship's diocese." To this letter the bishop returned a prompt and polite answer, promising to hear both sides. What he did, eventually, I know not. However, six months afterwards, Whitefield found some difficulty, though he carried his point, in preventing a separation from the church in Wales, as we shall soon see.

The next case of persecution which he had to resist came to him from Wiltshire. It was of a kind not altogether cured by another century of "the march of intellect." It was this: "The ministers of Bramble, Segery, Langley, and many others, have strictly forbidden the overseers and churchwardens to let any of the Cs (Cennickites?) have any thing out of the parish: and they obey them, and tell the poor, if they cannot stop them from following any other way, (than the church!) they will famish them. Several of the poor, having large families, have already been denied any help. Some, out of fear, denied they ever came, (to the conventicle,) and others have been made to promise they will come no more; whilst the most part come at the loss of friends and all they have. When the officers threatened some to take away their pay, they answered, "If you starve us we will go; and rather than forbear, we will live on grass like kine."

These facts, in this form, Whitefield submitted to the bishop of Old Sarum; telling his lordship plainly, that if C left the church, "hundreds would leave it with him." The effect, as usual, is not known. The only thing certain

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