believe, to have been literally the cafe; for at those more private affemblies, every thing tranfacted at the meeting-house, whatever has been done or faid by the preacher, is there copiously detailed by the leaders of the claffes, in fuch terms as cannot fail of making the wifhed for impreflion upon the minds of their hearers. That "the perfon who prefides in the clafs meetings, and who is termed the leader, is frequently a preacher," we confidently deny. For in the district to which the report relates, which contains almoft two hundred parishes, there are not more than five or fix preachers in the connection, and one fupernumerary ftationed; it is utterly impoffible, therefore, that, out of this fmall number, a preacher thould be found to prefide in the various clafs meetings which are held weekly in this diftrict, and that generally on the Lord's day. In cities, however, and large populous and commercial towns, we are ready to allow that the cafe may be as Mr. B. has represented. According to the rules of the fociety, a leader ought to be a perfon of clear experience and found judgment, truly devoted to God, zealous for the faluation of fouls, of upright converfation, and one who has GIFT's proper for the work. It is his bufinets, moreover, to fee each perfon in his clafs once a week at least, and to inquire how their fouls profper; how they keep the rules of the fociety; how they grow in the knowledge and love of God; and he is to advife, reprove, comfort or exhort, as occafion may require. From this account it will appear, that the leader of a class has indeed an arduous office upon his hands, and that very few perfons in the country will be found who are duly qualified for fuch an undertaking; for no fmall fhare of judgment and discretion is requifite on the part of him who is to make the foregoing inquiries, left, peradventure, overrating his GIFTS, he thould overftep the line of his duty, and be tempted to a grofs abufe and perverfion of his office. Many inftances of this nature, we fcruple not to affirm, have been known to exift, and do at this prefent time exift, in the Lincolnshire district. Several of the leaders of claffes are there known to us, whom we could enumerate by name, who can hardly be faid to have been trained up in the first rudiments of knowledge, and who, of course, are wholly unqualified for the office of teachers or exhorters. Of thefe fome are butchers and fhoemakers, and others fhepherds, day labourers, and menial fervants. Will then Mr. B., whom we confider as the Goliath and doughty champion of his fect, have the temerity to decide abfolutely upon the character of these men? Will he venture pofitively to affert, that perfons of low and obfcure ftations, who have been nominated to the M 3 office office of leaders, are, without exception, men of clear experiente and found judgment, and endowed with Gifts proper for the work? We, alas! can affure him, that the cafe is far otherwife; we know that many of these ignorant and fanatic leaders are the inveterate enemies of the eftablishment, and are altogether indefatigable in their endeavours to draw afide the honest cottager and the induftrious labourer from his duty, and to prevent the attendance on the public worship of the church, telfing them that churches are but ufelefs buildings, being nothing but a heap of ftones; that the pure doctrine of the Gofpel is feldom, if ever, preached therein; and that out of their own fociety falvation is not to be had. These men, likewife, prefuming upon their office, imagine themselves to be transformed into preachers, and accordingly perform more than is required of them by the rules of the fociety; for, in addition to finging, praying, and relating their own EXPERIENCES, and hearing thofe of others; they arrogate to themselves the right of expounding the fcriptures; and thus, by handling the word of God, ignorantly and deceitfully, they feduce the unwary, and propagate errors of a dangerous and deftructive tendency. Thefe clafs meetings, therefore, we cannot but view with a fufpicious and fearful eye; they are the very hot-beds of fuperftition and enthufiafm, from whence an almost inconceivable number of ignorant and deluded perfons are yearly transplanted out of the established Church into the conventicle or meetinghouse and the country leaders, of whom we are now fpeaking, may be confidered in many refpects, to refemble those who, in the words of the Apoftle, were wont to creep into houfes-to infinuate themselves into private families, and lead filly women captive-those of weak and unstable minds, who were ready to run after and to hear every new teacher; and who, toffed about by every wind of doctrine, are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, or to attain any fixed or fteady principles with regard to religion. In like manner do thefe men, by the recital of trifling and unmeaning anecdotes, by an exaggerated relation of the experiences of themselves and others, and fuppofed miraculous interpofitions, and by falfe pretenfions to miracles, of various and extraordinary kinds, at length win over to their own extravagant tenets a manifold variety of deluded converts, who, after their own lufts, have heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears. To thefe ignorant leaders of claffes may be juftly applied the epithet of "blind guides ;" they are, indeed, blind leaders of the blind; and we fully agree with Mr. B. that if the blind thus lead the blind, they both muft, inevitably fall into the ditch: and to these unauthorised and uncommiffioned teachers, we would strongly recommend recommend, in future, an attentive confideration of the following texts: Let every man abide in the fame calling wherein he is called:" the meaning of which is, let every one remain in that state, profeffion, or circumftance of life, in which he was educated and brought up, and in which various opportunities occur for him to evince the fincerity of his faith, by fhewing that in whatever ftate he is, he hath learned therewith to be content;" and "living foberly, righteously, and godly, in this prefent world," let him alfo study therein to be quiet, and to do his own business, working with his hands the thing which is good. Phil. iv. II. Tit. ii. 12. 1 Theff. iv. 11. Ephef. iv. 28. σε There is another circumftance, of which we think it our duty at this juncture to remind Mr. B. as it is poffible he may, THROUGH INADVERTENCE, have overlooked it in his present Vindication; that is, in his recapitulation of the duties attached to clafs leaders, he hath evidently forborn to mention what we muft ever deem a most effential one, inasmuch as the profperous or declining state of the funds of the whole fociety principally depends upon the due performance of it. In the General Rules, published in 1798, the leaders of claffes are directed to receive what each perfon is willing to give for the fupport of the Gofpel; to pay the ftewards what they have received of their feveral claffes; and to fhew their account of what each perfon hath contributed." On the individual exertions of thefe leaders much, therefore, depends; and great care, no doubt, is taken, in the felection of this defcription of officers, that they are duly qualified, and have GIFTS proper for the work. What is to be understood by the word GIFTS, we are really at a loss to comprehend; but we conceive that the GIFT of enticing words wherewith they may beguile their hearers, and by which the cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive, is wont frequently to impofe upon others, will here be found to be of no little fervice and from this confideration we are enabled, in fome meafure, to account for the unrelenting violence with which they calumniate the Clergy, and revile the Establishment. Ás the Author of the Vindication has undertaken to justify the conduct of these men, from a particular paffage in the third Epistle of St. John, we would obferve thereon, that the words of the Apostle afford no fanction, no pretext whatever, for the inquifitorial ufurpation of these men over the minds and confciences of the members of their refpective claffes. This Epiftle is by no means to be confidered as a catholic one; it is addreffed to a private individual, who was the esteemed friend of the Apoftle; and the language adopted in the fecond verse is merely expreffive of the benevolent wishes of the writer to M 4 his his beloved Gaius, that in bodily health, and in all his worldly concerus, he might, under the divine bleffing, be made to fucceed and profper, even as his foul had been made to prosper, by the knowledge of the Gospel, and the influence which its enlivening truths had already had upon his life and conversation. The verb Eudal, we confider in this paffage, as having a fignification fimilar to that of the Hebrew verb in the conjugation Hiphil. We have been thus copious in difcuffing the fubject of the clafs meetings, because here Mr. B. feems to reft the chief part of his defence, and priding himself on the fuppofed ignorance of the reporters, as to the manner in which thofe meetings have been conducted in the country, he confiders himself as flanding upon vantage ground, and from thence, with a fupercilious confidence, he bids defiance to his adverfaries. But enough, we truft, has now been faid to convince our readers, that great, very great, abufes do indeed prevail in this department of methodifm, which loudly call for fome legislative remedy. (To be concluded in our next.) A Journey from London to the Isle of Wight. By Thomas Pennant, Efq. 2. Vols. 4to. PP. 424. 3 35. West and Hughes. 1801. "THE merits of the late Mhor, are too well known to require volumes) as an author, encomium: his talents as a naturalift ftand unrivalled; and, as a tourist, he was the first who enlivened the drynefs of topographical research with historical and biographical anecdote, and illuftrated - defcription with the decorations of the pencil. Several tours, thus - recommended, were published during his life-time, and have gone through numerous editions; others, which he never printed, are enumerated, in his literary life; amongst these ftands confpicuous the tour from London to Dover, and from Dover to the Land's End. In regard to the tour from London to Dover, which forms part of his great work on the outlines of the globe, he thus expreffes himfell: Vol. II. deferibes a tour commencing at the Temple Stairs, comprehending my paffage down the Thames, as low as Dartford Creek, and from thence to Dover." "The tour from Dover, which forms another part of his outlines of the globe, he thus defcribes in page 31: ever fince the year 1777, I had quite.loft my fpirit of rambling. Another happy nuptial connection fuppreffed every defire to leave my fire-fide; but, in the spring of this year, I was induced once more to renew my journies. My for had returned from his lait tour to the Continent, fo much to my fatisfaction, that I was determined to give him every advantage that might qualify, him for a fecond, which he was on the point of taking over the kingdoms of France and Spain. I wished him to make a comparison of the naval strength and commercial advantages and difadvantages of our island, with thofe of her two powerful rivals: I attended him down the Thames, vifited all our docks, and, by land, (from Dartford) followed the whole coaft to the very Land's End. On his return from his fecond tour I had great reafon to boast that this excurfion was not thrown away as to myself, it was a painful one; long abfence from my family was fo new to me, that, I may fincerely fay, it caft an anxiety over the whole journey, "The intereft which every reader muft feel in the defcription and delineation of thefe portions of our ifle, will be greatly enhanced by the confideration that this is among the pofthumous remains of that correct obferver, and experienced inveftigator, whofe glance penetrated through all the receifes of nature--whole tafte in embellishment and accuracy in defcription, fubjected to the eye, and indelibly impreffed on the mind of his reader, those images which were fo happily conceived, and fo intereftingly blended in his own. This work is among the last treafures drawn from that mine of learning and feience which the hand of providence has closed for ever-that mine by which our national treafures have been copioufly augmented, and from which some of the most estimable ornaments of British literature have been derived. Confidering thefe tours are part of a grand unfinished project, they present a model to that kindred genius who fhall venture to perfect what PENNANT left incomplete. Confidered as a fragment of an illuftrious author, they will not want value in the - eyes of his countrymen, as they display that grand portion of the British territory where force, wealth, and that commerce from which both are derived, have fixed their chief, and, it is hoped immoveable refidence. "Thefe tours, now prefented to the public, were kindly commu nicated by David Pennant, Efq. the fon of the author. The editor has fpared neither pains nor expence to render this work in all refpects equal to Mr. Pennant's former publications: it is embellithed with forty-nine Plates, confitting of views of the most important places mentioned in the tour, and portraits of illuftrious perfons. "It is neceffary to apprize the reader, that the manufcript has been fcrupulously adhered to, and that two or three breaks, left by Mr. Pennant, are not filled up. This confcientious adherence to literary veracity will require no apology, the editor defpaired of em bellishing, and would not ritk disfiguring the work of fo excellent a band." This fcrupulous adherence to the manufcript is carried to a length that is truly ridiculous, as our readers will admit when they are told that the breaks which are left might eafily be filled up by a child; for inftance, in the account of Green wich |