one of the most popular of his works-"The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul"-conceived in a spirit quite opposite to the prevailing rationalism, and placing the seat of religion in the conscience and the heart. With strong affections and a fervent piety, he united that love of human praise and sympathy which is incident to such a character, and which prevented him from exhibiting on all occasions the clear decision and fixed purpose essential to the highest form of usefulness. He was himself too learned, not to be fully aware of the value of the contributions that were made by the rational school, to the cause of sacred criticism and pure Christianity; and yet he looked with a feeling of perhaps deeper interest, on the movements of more enthusiastic and even mystical religionists. Count Zinzendorf, Mr. Wesley, and Lady Huntingdon, were among his correspondents; nor did he scruple to open his pulpit to Whitfield. He seems, in short, to have felt that there was a work to be accomplished in society, to which the existing means of religious agency were inadequate, and on which he was willing to assist earnest minds, out of his own denomination, in bringing to bear a new force and better adapted instrumentality. For these friendly relations with the Methodists, he incurred the displeasure of his old Nonconforming friends, and amongst them, of Watts himself. On the other hand, his intercourse with

distinguished members of the Church was highly flattering. Warburton constantly wrote to him in terms of the greatest cordiality, and asked his advice on points of literature and criticism. He had correspondents at Oxford and Cambridge, and among the bishops. Doddridge's was not a mind to be insensible to such distinctions. Perhaps the influence of them interfered a little with perfect simplicity and directness of action. He was anxious to maintain the eminence of his position, and tried to keep a middle way between all extremes. Of this character was his suggestion to Archbishop Herring, that in place of a complete comprehension, there should be a recognition of the Dissenting Churches, as unschismatical, with an occasional exchange of pulpits between the clergy and the Nonconformist ministers.a

Doddridge's religion consisted so much in feeling, that it is not surprising, it should have placed him, at different times, in positions which to every one but himself seemed inconsistent. His great work, on which he bestowed the best years of his life, the Family Expositor, reflects the character of his mind, and represents the two elements which it was the constant effort of his life to combine and reconcile-the critical or rationalistic, and the orthodox or sentimental. In his notes and paraphrase, he discovers the well• Correspondence, Vol. V. p. 76.

instructed scholar and divine; in his reflections and improvement, he often betrays the declamatory preacher. His character, as a whole, was amiable and estimable-full of fervour and zealinteresting to look back upon, as expressing with vividness and prominence the spirit of his age; but deficient, it must be confessed, in the higher attributes of mental and moral greatness. Yet in Doddridge, the Protestant Dissenting ministry reached its culminating point of worldly influence and respectability. Never, perhaps, before or since, did a Nonconformist divine enjoy so extensive a reputation, or meet with such universal respect. He flourished just at that juncture, when parties pretty nearly balanced each other in the religious world; and his courteous sympathising spirit won honourable opinions from them all. From the time of his death, the old form of Protestant Dissent began to decline, and change its character; and principles which his position and influence had enabled him to keep together in tolerable union, soon after diverged into irreconcileable hostility.

The religion of feeling, crushed by formalism and rationalism out of the Church and the old Dissent, was taken up and embodied by Methodism. The origin of this vast sect is altogether due to the imperfections of earlier religious bodies; for it represents no great idea, it embodies no

principle, like Puritanism or the Church; it is a mere outbreak of feeling that was pent up, and wanted free expression; it was an irregular effort to compensate the deficiencies of existing institutions. Attached to the liturgy and discipline of the Church, and expressing in its two great sections, the Arminian and Calvinistic interpretation of the Articles, it is a reflection, an echo, of the hierarchy among the people; shewing clearly what the hierarchy might have done, and, to retain its place as a national religion, ought to have done; and having little in common with the Dissenters, but the freedom of its original action, and its appeal to the popular heartMethodism was a blessing to society, in the fresh outpouring of its missionary spirit over the dry and waste places of the earth. Its continuance as an institution, is less perhaps due to the unabated energy of its moral power, than to the skilful organisation of its separate societies, and their union under a strong central authority. It represents, if we may so express it, rather a fact than a principle. It hence becomes difficult to form any conjecture as to its ultimate destiny. Should the Church ever undergo some great reform, and bring its ministrations into harmony with the wants of the people, it would appear most natural, that Methodism should be re-absorbed into the womb that gave it birth. But

should this not be-as Methodism rests on no great historical tradition, and embodies no distinct principle-it is hardly to be conceived how, in its present form, it should be able permanently to maintain its ground in the midst of a growing spirit of intelligence and freedom, diffused through those classes to which it must chiefly look for its support. But we must now direct our attention to a very different phænomenon.

SECT. XI.

CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES OF ENGLISH DEISM, OR FREETHINKING.

The name Deist is said to have been first assumed by the deniers of revealed religion in France and Italy, about the middle of the sixteenth century. In the great unsettling of previous opinions, occasioned by the Reformation, it is probable, that deistical principles early took possession of some speculative minds, though they were not enough diffused, nor excited sufficient interest, to form the bond of a sect. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, already alluded to, was the first in our own country to give these principles in a systematic form to the world. Built on the assumption of Leland's View of Deistical Writers, Vol. I. p. 2.

a