“Upon the same account, you say, section 9. page _ibid._ _fine cloaths_ and _rich furniture_ stand absolutely condemned:” (not by me, it seems, for I find no quotations out of my Journals annexed) “But oh! (as a part or consequence of this) how good and saint-like it is, to go dirty, ragged, and slovenly! And how piously did Mr. _Whitefield_ therefore take care of the outward man! My apparel was mean, &c.” Section 10. page 21. Really, Sir, whilst I read this part of your performance, I could not help thinking, that a person of your turn of mind, would have been apt to have joined with those naughty boys, who, when they saw that demure, rough, hairy, slovenly enthusiast, called _Elijah_, followed after him, and cried, “Go up, thou bald pate, go.” Or, if you had lived in _John Baptist_’s time, and seen him come preaching in the wilderness, with a camel-hair garment, and a leathern girdle about his loins; especially if you had heard, that his meat was only locusts and wild honey; would you not have been tempted, think you, to give in your verdict amongst those who said, “He had a devil?” Know you not, that these are extremes which young awakened persons are apt to run into when under a sense of sin, and influenced by what the Apostle calls the _spirit of bondage_? Do I not mention them as such? And are they not things which of themselves fall off, when persons are brought into the comforts of religion, and have received the _spirit of adoption_, whereby they cry, Abba, Father? But I shall leave you at present, to make as merry as you will with the sanctified appearances, and dirty ragged cloaths of these enthusiastical Methodists. Let us pass on to your 11th section, page 22. “Of this nature likewise, is their utter condemnation of all _recreation_, in every kind and degree. Mr. _Whitefield_ laments,” (indeed I do, Sir, even now I am grown older) “that in his younger days he was not convinced of the absolute unlawfulness of playing at cards, and of reading and seeing plays.” And if you are in advanced years, and a _clergyman_ too, and are not convinced of the unlawfulness of cards, and can find time from your other studies and duties of your calling, to see or read such plays as the generality of ours are, I think you ought to lament it too. For what says our church in her 75th canon? “No ecclesiastical persons shall at any time, other than for their honest necessities, resort to any _taverns_ or _alehouses_; neither shall they board or lodge in any such places. Furthermore, they shall not give themselves to any base or servile labour, or to _drinking_ or _riot_, spending their time idly by day or night, playing at _dice_, _cards_, or _tables_, or any _other unlawful game_; but at all times convenient, they shall hear or read somewhat of the Holy Scriptures, or shall occupy themselves with some other honest study or exercise, always doing the things which shall appertain to honesty, and endeavouring to profit the church of GOD; having always in mind, that they ought to excel all others in purity of life, and should be examples to the people to live well and christianly, under pain of ecclesiastical censures to be inflicted with severity, according to the qualities of their offences.” O when shall this once be!
In your 12th section page 24. you go on to rally these enthusiastical Methodists for their _seeming contempt of money_. And again, section 13. page 26. you say, “Another bait to catch admirers, and very common among enthusiasts, is a restless impatience and insatiable thirst of _travelling_, and undertaking _dangerous voyages_ for the conversion of _infidels_; together with a declared contempt of all dangers, pains, and sufferings.” And then, after drawing your usual comparison between these enthusiastical Methodists and popish saints, you make this judicious remark, “The windmill is indeed in all their heads.”