'We condemned the state of Archbishop Tillot-
son when we ought only in a candid manner to
have mentioned what we judged wrong in his doc-
trines. I do not justify it. I condemn myself most
heartily, and ask pardon for it. But then do not
you, sir, go on, to imitate us in our faults. Let
the surviving Methodists answer for themselves ; let
Seward and Tillotson lie undisturbed.'

Here, too, occurs a passage which allows us to
hope that the Methodist zeal against innocent
recreation was not quite so strong as much of their
teaching would lead us to suppose. His antagonist
had advanced against the Methodists at least one
well-founded reproach : their condemnation of all
theatrical entertainment. 'If you can find time,'



XIII.] CHURCH AGAINST METHODISTS. 319

replies Whitefield, ' from your other studies and
duties of your calling to see and read such plays as
the generality of ours are, I think you ought to
lament it too.'

Again, he had been accused, with some justice at
that time, of a fanatical eagerness for martyrdom,
and Lavington had not failed to rake together every
wild utterance of a similar import with which this
instance of enthusiasm might be brought into com-
pany. Perhaps few men are able, in the face of an
insulting attack, to avow and abjure this kind of
folly with a spirit so clear and calm as that manifest
in the following words : —

' Whatever can be produced out of my writings to
prove that I have desired or prayed for ill-usage,
persecution, martyrdom, death, &c., I retract it with
all my heart, as proceeding from the overflowings of
an irregular, though well-meant, zeal. However it
might be with me formerly, I now find myself no
ways disposed to say with Peter, " Though all men
deny thee, yet will not I." Alas, alas ! we know not
what feathers we shall be, when tossed in the wind
of temptation ! Sufferings for the cause and cross of
Christ will come fast enough of themselves, without
our praying for them. 