III. Our Saviour uttered no impassioned devotion. There was no heat in
his piety, or in the language in which he expressed it; no vehement or
rapturous ejaculations, no violent urgency, in his prayers. The Lord's
Prayer is a model of calm devotion. His words in the garden are
unaffected expressions of a deep, indeed, but sober piety. He never
appears to have been worked up into anything like that elation, or that
emotion of spirits which is occasionally observed in most of those to
whom the name of enthusiast can in any degree be applied. I feel a
respect for Methodists, because I believe that there is to be found
amongst them much sincere piety, and availing though not always
well-informed Christianity: yet I never attended a meeting of theirs but
I came away with the reflection, how different what I heard was from
what I read! I do not mean in doctrine, with which at present I have no
concern, but in manner how different from the calmness, the sobriety,
the good sense, and I may add, the strength and authority of our Lord's
discourses!
IV. It is very usual with the human mind to substitute forwardness and
fervency in a particular cause for the merit of general and regular
morality; and it is natural, and politic also, in the leader of a sect
or party, to encourage such a disposition in his followers.
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