salaries, this mighty increase,' the gentlemen tell their readers, the Methodist ministers' DEMAND AND receive.'

To follow them in their representations and assertions, is the most painful task ever imposed on the present writer. He has read many Deistical publications, and Universalist effusions, but he never saw, in the most angry production of a Deist, or Universalist, a wider departure from the course of honor, candour, truth, charity, and the whole spirit of the Gospel, than is evinced in these letters, and especially in those on the salaries of Methodist preachers. But what renders it still more exquisitely painful to follow them is, that they have done these things under the profession of the Christian ministry. No marvel that they concealed their names. A regard for themselves dictated this; and we venture to predict that nothing but necessity will ever induce them to avow the authorship of the Letters on Methodism. And that necessity may exist. Already circumstances pretty clearly point them out; and if any thing will induce them to come to the light, it will probably be a desire to save their reputation by an effort to prevent their being, willing or unwilling, dragged before the public.

The reader will now please to notice a few facts in direct opposition to the representations of the gentlemen.

1. The Methodist preachers do not receive 300 dollars' over and above all their expenses.

2. They do not estimate for themselves the amount to be paid them. 3. Their salaries are not 'enormous.' No Methodist preacher has ever got rich from the salaries allowed him.

4. No Methodist minister is 'sure' of what the Discipline allows him, or of what is estimated for him.

We would now call the reader's attention to the actual amount of Methodist preachers' salaries. For several years this conference [the New-England] published financial minutes, giving the amount of collections and disbursements.

These financial minutes for 1821 and 1822, now lie before me. The finances of the conference have not improved much, if any, since those years; and it may be observed that the New-England conference, at the dates mentioned above, included the whole of NewEngland east of Connecticut, excepting that part of Vermont west of the Green Mountains.

We will first, then, present the gentlemen with a view of the 'mighty income' of the Methodist preachers, by giving the whole number in this conference who received $400 and upwards for the year 1821 :

Providence, for one preacher and family, raised.

Lynn Common, one preacher and family.

Lynn Wood End,

do.

do.

Boston, two preachers and families..

Nantucket, one preacher and family.

Hamden circuit, two preachers and one family..

$472 82

474 82

433 70

1130 82

511 00

467 94

It appears from this view, that only one preacher this year received over five hundred dollars; that none of the others came up to that VOL. II.-October, 1831.

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sum, and that only four others overran four hundred dollars. The next highest was $366, 21; and from that down to $19, 94.

We will next give the whole number of preachers who received four hundred dollars and upwards for the year 1822.

Providence, one preacher and family

Lynn Common,

do.

do.

Lynn Wood End,

Nantucket,

Hallowell, one preacher and family..

Hamden, do.

do.

do.

$450 00

From this it appears that only one preacher received over five hundred dollars this year, and that only five overran four hundred dollars. The next highest was three hundred and fifty-eight dollars, and from that sum down to thirty-four dollars and seventy-two cents. These are specimens of the enormous,' the immense salaries' of the Methodist preachers.

'sure' of The Rev. gentlemen tell us also that these preachers are their whole allowance; that they demand' and 'receive it.' To show how near the truth they have come, we will here give some other statements from the aforesaid financial minutes.

The whole sum required for 1821, exclusive of the presiding elders'

allowance, was

The whole sum received was

Leaving a deficit of.....

To meet this deficiency, the conference had

From the Book Concern

From the Charter Fund..

From mite and cent societies

Collections for conference

Leaving a final deficiency of .....

10,199 41

The minutes of this conference for 1830 were not printed; but I can give the Rev. gentlemen one fact, which may convince them that the finances of the conference have not much advanced upon former years, which is, that our superannuated preachers received but eighteen dollars for that year.

On the whole we may remark,

1. That the Methodist preachers in the largest towns and best societies receive but about one third as much as the Orthodox ministers in the same towns.

2. That only a few Methodist preachers in the largest towns, where rents and living are high, receive as much as the Orthodox ministers generally receive, even of those who have the poorest parishes in the country, where living is cheap.

3. We may safely conclude, that two thirds of the Methodist preachers in the country do not receive over one half of what is considered a comfortable living for an Orthodox minister in the same parts of the country.

4. The gentlemen, in their representations of Methodist preachers' salaries, have done what intelligent and candid men could not do.

5. That what they have said of the oppressions of the Methodist people, and their groaning under the burthens imposed on them by

their preachers, is false, officious, and meddlesome, and what intelligent and honourable men would not say.

6. That the Methodist ministers are supported by the voluntary contributions of their people; while the Orthodox ministers generally receive not only much larger salaries, but have them legally assessed and secured by law.

7. That if the Methodist preachers are 'hirelings,' because they receive large 'salaries,' and are sure' of their support, the Orthodox ministers must be 'hirelings' for the same reason; but then as the latter receive more, and are more 'sure' of their salaries than the former, they are more properly hirelings. This is according to their own showing. The next letter of the Rev. gentlemen is devoted to show how the sums necessary to support this 'traveling multitude' are raised. Loud complaints are uttered against the frequency of our collections, and the tariff' on our books, as well as against the objects to which they are applied. The gentlemen seem to think the civil government, and all our republican institutions, are in danger from the 'immense' revenues of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and that some earthly tribunal' ought to be created to look into this subject, lest it should rear a wealthy and haughty aristocracy' in the midst of us. We have wondered to see the gentlemen so anxious upon the subject of Methodist preachers' salaries. But the secret is now out. In a former letter they tell us, 'The Methodist ministry furnishes a living which is equal at least to the avails of a fund of $10,000. And into this living they step with little or no previous expense for education: while other ministers, after having spent in time and money, and for necessary books, what is equal in ordinary cases to $3,000, to prepare themselves for usefulness in the church, receive for their labour, in a vast variety of cases, "but A BARE LIVING, and in many cases BARE ENOUGH."- A bare living!''Ay, there's the rub.' The Rev. gentlemen, after spending $3,000 to qualify themselves for usefulness,' cannot bear to see the illiterate Methodists' out-do them. Surely there must be a strange mysterious 'power in Methodism, of which we have not been aware.' So the gentlemen think. And they are half right. There is a power in Methodism," otherwise the Methodists in so short a time, from such small beginnings, unaided by the powers that be,' without wealth and without learning,' could never have grown to be more than half a million' of souls in these United States. This power, so mysterious to these gentlemen, is none other than the truth and consistency of their doctrines, their manner of preaching them, and the blessing of God upon their labours. The love of Christ and of souls has carried them forward against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and against some Orthodox ministers and floods of calumny, and the pleasure of the Lord has prospered in their hands. Between them. and the children whom the Lord has given them, there has been a mutual and strong affection. They have been united in labours, in reproaches, and in divine consolations; and hence the freeness and the cordiality with which they have communicated to each other's wants. For a farther answer to the gentlemen's misrepresentations and exaggerations, the reader may consult the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review, and the Reviewer Reviewed, as before referred to.

On the eighth and ninth Letters I shall barely remark:

1. The prefixing the significant word our' to their music, books, &c, is not done, as the gentlemen represent, to prevent their members from mingling,' or communing with those of other denominations,'-learning their 'tunes,' or reading their books, but as giving preference to their own, as every denomination ought to do.

2. The burlesquing the whole body of the Methodists, because a Methodist once relinquished the reading and admiring of Thomas à Kempis when he came to be informed that he was a Roman Catholic, is just such a proof of an exclusive feeling in that body, as the following anecdote is of the same feeling in the whole body of the Orthodox. Many years ago, when I traveled a circuit on Penobscot river, about half a dozen Calvinists in held a separate meeting on the Sabbath, when the Methodists preached in the vicinity. A certain man, who sometimes attended with them, read one of Wesley's sermons to them on a Sabbath, and after the meeting he asked several how they liked the sermon. They, supposing the author to be a Calvinist, gave their unqualified approbation of the discourse. One said it was his experience.' Another, that is 'was the very marrow of the Gospel.' The person who read it then told them that John Wesley was the author of it. The whole meeting was in a sad dilemma. To approve the discourse of a Methodist, would wound their consciences; and to take back their approbation was impossible. After enduring for some time their disagreeable situation, one hit upon a method of relieving the whole company, by observing that it did not come from a Methodist preacher's mouth.'

3. In Chap, i. sec. i, of our Discipline, about thirty 'rules' are given by which to judge the sincerity of those who desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins:' but the gentlemen, with their accustomed candour and good feeling,' give about half the initiating lines of the section, and exclude every one of the 'rules,' and then say, Who does not see that this condition, namely, a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins,' throws the doors of Christian communion open to ALL who may wish to enter?' Were the Presbyterians to pursue such a course of admitting members, their church would swell to millions.'

This is the ingenuousness of ministers calling themselves ORTHODOX! We will not complain, but simply add, that if a Methodist minister should depart so far from the spirit of these rules, as these gentlemen have from fair dealing, he would be expelled from the Church.

4. Even that merciful rule' which relates to the doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith, (whether Methodists or Orthodox,) helping one another in business,' &c, for the express reason that 'the world will love only its own,' and will oppress these, is by the gentlemen resolved into a 'sectarian feeling. Really, gentlemen, you have driven us to despair-despair of pleasing you, unless at the expense of our consciences, and the word of God. We have seen how you trifled with the rules respecting dress, though founded on the plain word of God. The plainness of dress in the Methodists you condemn as 'grimace' and 'pride.' Here is another rule founded on the express word of God, Gal. vi, 10, Do good, especially to them that are of the household of faith.' This you make to be evi

dence of a 'sectarian feeling.' To clear ourselves, we adopt the Apostle's mode of reasoning, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you, more than unto God, judge ye.'

We pass over in silence a great many things in these Letters, because it is as painful to us, as it must be unedifying to our readers, to follow Rev. gentlemen who deal in little beside injury and insult. There are a few things more, however, which we must notice. We have met with many strange things and anomalies in the course of the Letters on Methodism, which are a tissue of misrepresentations and falsehoods from beginning to end. We have now a most queer thing to notice. The pious female, whose letter of inquiry has led to this public disclosure of the evils of Methodism, being exceedingly perplexed in her mind to know whether she could safely continue to worship with the Methodists, since she had begun to see their true characters, writes to her spiritual father,' and requests him to resolve her difficulties: but, alas! he, at the end of his eighth letter, finds himself as much in the dark as to the object of her inquiries, as she is herself; and returns her this comfortless answer: You must settle this question for yourself.' Yes, who would believe it? All these Rev. gentlemen, after accusing the denomination of Methodists of pride and arrogancy; bigotry and a sectarian spirit; of deceit, and guile, and falsehood;' as a 'mischievous' sect; after representing them as an anti-Christian sect, the most favored daughter of the Church of Rome,'-after all this and more, the gentlemen cannot answer her inquiries as to joining herself to their assembly. Their words are,

6

The most difficult part of your question respects your relation to the Methodists. If you were so situated that you could conveniently attend meetings of your own denomination, the case would be plain. Christians should weigh well the matter before they consent to become in any way accessary to the mischiefs practised by them.

What, gentlemen! after the character you have given the Methodists, do you hesitate whether it be the duty of an Orthodox Christian to commune with them? Do you really mean to say, that if it is not convenient for him to meet with Christians, he may meet with hypocrites, deceivers, and corrupters of the word of God? Do you say, that Christians should weigh well the matter before they consent to unite with bacchanalians, thieves, and incendiaries? Really, gentlemen, we cannot believe that you are in earnest; for if the Methodists be the people you represent them to be, you can with no more propriety consent that Christians should unite with them, than with a gang of incendiaries. If we may therefore be permitted to speak the honest sentiments of our hearts, we must say, either that you yourselves do not believe what you have said about the Methodists, or that what you say as to the pious female's relation to them, is mere affectation of candour and liberality. This is another proof that the correspondence with this pious, anxious female, is all a fiction. Men do not trifle thus in matters of importance and truth.

The gentleman gives the following as a 'test' by which the guilt or innocence of the Methodists may be known:

"You may test their unwillingness to attend to any subject which does not come from "our" people, by offering my letters to some of them. In doing this you