SIR,

To the Editor of the Christian Pioneer.

THE epistle of Mr. Slater of Rochdale, to Mr. Hobson of Glasgow, inserted in your Number for March, I consider to be indited by the pure spirit of pharisaical orthodoxy. It proceeds upon the ground-" The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we!-Stand by thyself, come not near to me, I am holier than thou!Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach me!" The Pharisees who felt themselves so much puzzled and perplexed, by the plain honesty of the poor man who was born blind, evidently intended to support their own dignity and sanctity, at the expense of the poor man's reputation and character; and I am much mistaken, if Mr. Slater has not gone and done likewise. He himself was brought to God thirty years since!" Nay, Sir, should a Wesleyan occasionally look into the lives, spirit, and temper of Socinian and of Orthodox divines, he sees a striking difference between a Priestley and a Doddridge and a Wesley-a Belsham and a Fletcher!"-" Wesleyans believe that all Scripture was given by inspiration of God!"*

"Who have circulated Bibles, and religious tracts, and Christian education, and the knowledge of the divine Redeemer through the globe!"-(and why, Mr. Slater, did you not add, "Who has compassed sea and land to make proselytes!" was it because of the manner in which this sentence ends?)Whilst "Socinians, without the least ceremony, reject certain portions of the Divine Word as unauthentic' 66 bring Jesus Christ to the level of a mere man!"-"The blighting doctrines of Socinianism," &c.

I once heard an itinerant Wesleyan preacher say, "that there was preaching enough at their Conference to choke a dog." Here is fulsome flattery enough to choke a score. The degrading epithets which he so liberally bestows upon what he calls Socinian and Socinianism, excites one's compassion. But I beg leave to inform Mr. Slater, if he needs to be informed, that the Unitarians (for, if he nickname us, surely we may call ourselves by our proper name) deny no part of the Divine Word as unauthentic. If, however, Mr. Slater had said, Unitarians reject certain parts of the Scriptures, as being no part of the Word of God, I would have answered, there have been, and are,

* Except Dr. A. Clarke, who believes 1 John v. 7, to be an interpolation.

Wesleyans who do so too. As to Unitarians placing other parts on a level with uninspired compositions,-I reply, so do some of you. Once in conversation with Mr. Samuel Taylor, one of your travelling preachers, I quoted to him, to prove what I was saying, a passage out of Solomon's Song; but he rejected it, observing, "that is no part of the Word of God." I was more orthodox then than I am now; but since then, I have often thought, that if the Methodist preachers would but as honestly divulge their minds as the Unitarians do, some of them would be found as deep in the dirt as they accuse us of being in the mire! But,

"When interest and ease are so closely combin'd,

'Twould be strange if they did not seem all of one mind.'

66

And as to the "Unitarians bringing Jesus Christ to the level of a mere man," they, in accordance with the Scriptures, say of him, that he was a man, approved of God, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him." And, "blighting" as their doctrines are, they can express them in Scripture language, without addition or comment:-Can Mr. Slater do so of his?

But my principal design, Mr. Editor, in addressing you at present, is, to place in its proper light, the character of my late worthy and estimable friend, Mr. Cooke,-I say, in its proper light; but I regret that I have not the ability to portray it as it ought to be, nor to do full justice to the subject.

Mr. Cooke has now been peacefully slumbering in the dust sixteen years. No one before Mr. Slater, has attempted to disturb his repose. I need not say, that this conduct of Mr. Slater does not savour of the Christian or

* These two lines, composed by Mr. Cooke, refer to the following curious piece of history:-After Mr. Cooke had been called before the Conference in 1805 (the year before his expulsion), Mr. Hare (afterwards his opponent), who had been severely rebuked at the same Conference by Mr. Benson, respecting his conduct towards the singers at Stockport, took Mr. Cooke by the arm, as they walked out of the chapel, and said to him, be assured you have no enemy in me; and then told him the following curious anecdote. I was once preaching in a certain place (said Mr. Hare), from Rom. viii. 16, and got foul of Mr. Wesley's notions. Mr. Benson, chancing to be within hearing, afterwards took me to task for it, when I had to make the best apology I could. After which, Mr. Benson said, For my part, I have my doubts whether the Apostle, in that passage, meant any thing more than the witness of miracles; but I always také care never to SEEM to contradict Mr. Wesley. (See the Hasty Sentence arrested, &c. by J. Cooke, p. 4 & 5.)

the gentleman: it is unmanly-it is dastardly. "Joseph Cooke," says he, "was rather an acute and subtle young man; but extremely pert and self-conceited,"—" who treated the advice of near two hundred well-instructed Divines with extreme indifference, not to say contempt!" Mr. Cooke was certainly the subject of much verbal calumny and persecution, from his being expelled the Methodist Connexion to his death. But I do not remember to have heard of any charge being brought against him, similar to the above, no, not even by his bitterest enemy. His doctrine was represented as a damnable heresy; but the very body that expelled him, said that he was a man of "unimpeached morals." And before his supposed heresy was known, he was uncommonly and deservedly esteemed by all who knew him; and to Mr. Slater and to him alone, belongs the honour or disgrace of the foul crime of having stabbed the character of this excellent man, when he himself was incapable of warding off the blow.

But it is proper, that those who have seen this foul charge, should also have the opportunity of seeing upon what ground it has been made. Mr. Cooke was a Methodist preacher, and he gloried in the name. He studied and laboured to be an honour and credit to the cause. In the course of his ministry, he met with many who— he believed, from the unguarded manner in which they had been taught-talked as though they believed religion consisted principally in raptures and impressions, and who made their imaginations and feelings, rather than the Word of God, the criterion of religious truth. He met with others, in whom godly sorrow had wrought true repentance, and who had broken and contrite hearts, but who could not boast of these raptures and impressions, or what was called the witness of the Spirit. On this account, they were taught to believe themselves to be in a deplorable condition, and under the wrath of God. Mr. C. was desirous, if possible, to put a stop to this prevailing error; and to do away with that reproach which he was sure it brought upon their whole body. With a view to this, he preached on these subjects; and afterwards published two sermons, in which he stated, what he conceived to be the true Methodistical sense of these subjects. For this, he was called before the Conference at Leeds, in August 1806. His manner of behaviour there, and the manner in which the Conference treated him, will be best

"About eight or ten para

seen from his own account. graphs," says he, "of my sermons were read at large in the Conference, but without the least remark being made upon them, either by way of opposition or explanation. I very naturally expected, that what was deemed objectionable in those paragraphs, would be pointed out; and that some reasons would be assigned for their being objected to. But, as several of the preachers (for reasons best known to themselves) heartily deprecated any debate in the Conference, upon their system of doctrines, a committee was appointed to converse with me upon the subject. I met the committee in the evening; and there I learned, that one point in which I was supposed to have erred was, as to the time and evidence of a man's justification, or when a man may be said to be justified. I was supposed to have taught, that, in whatever moment a sinner returns to God, according to the requisitions of the Gospel, God accepts that sinner, or his wrath no longer abides upon him; or, in other words, that the sinner is justified; and that, whether he has any comfortable persuasion of it in his own mind or not. I acknowledged the truth of this supposition, and declared my present belief in what I had so taught. This was reported to the Conference the next morning; when I confirmed the truth of the report, and declared my readiness to prove what I had taught, from the writings of Messrs. Wesley and Fletcher. It was then moved, that, if I thought myself able to do that, I ought to be heard. But this motion was overruled, by the president's observing, I might be able, perhaps, to quote a few insulated passages!' This prevented any appeal or discussion from taking place. And nothing now remained, but to pass sentence upon

me.

It was however moved, that my sentence should be deferred another day, that I (not the Conference) might farther consider the subject. To this I replied, that, if the Conference were resolved to condemn my sermons, I had no reason to think that another day or week would make any change in my opinions; and therefore desired that the matter might be brought to a conclusion. I was then desired to withdraw, while the Conference deliberated upon the subject. And, on being recalled, I was informed that I could not be considered a member of that body, while I retained my present sentiments."* And this is

* Methodism Condemned by Methodist Preachers, by J. Cooke.

that "discussion" which Mr. Slater remembers "to this day;" which left such "an indelible impression on his mind, and" so "amazingly raised the character of the preachers in his esteem, as men of astonishing Biblical knowledge," as men" of great perspicuity in stating their views on divine truth, and as stewards of Divine Mysteries that needed not to be ashamed!"

And this, too, is the behaviour of Mr. Cooke, which Mr. Slater calls "pert and self-conceited," and which "treated the advice of near two hundred well-instructed Divines with extreme indifference, not to say contempt!" When Mr. Slater has learned, that it is possible for a man to prefer the dictates of his conscience to every other consideration, he will then have learned, that the behaviour of Mr. Cooke before the Conference, was the behaviour of an honourable, upright, and conscientious man and Christian, deserving of the highest respect; and that such a man is worthy to be classed among the Confessors and sufferers for conscience' sake: and that his name will be hailed and blessed, when that of the cringing sycophant, who cannot afford to keep a conscience, shall be blotted from the memory of mankind, or remembered only with

execration.

Mr. Slater also accuses Mr. Cooke of violating a most solemn engagement. "The misguided young man," says he, "who treated the advice of near two hundred wellinstructed Divines with extreme indifference, not to say contempt, in conclusion, made a promise to make the controverted topics a matter of close study for one year; but solemnly engaged before us all, not to agitate the points, directly or indirectly, in the pulpit, or in private, among our people. On this condition, we appointed him to the Sunderland circuit. He had not been many weeks in his new station before he violated his engagement with the Conference: he furiously preached, and soon after published his erroneous sentiments." This charge, although not substantially the same as that made against Mr. Cooke by Mr. Hare, is yet so nearly allied to it, that both may be supposed to have arisen from the same source. Mr. Hare's charge is, "Contrary to your solemn engagement, and in defiance of the Conference, you published those sermons." (See Genuine Methodism acquitted, and Spurious Methodism condemned, by Edward Hare.) So that, whatever will rebut the one will rebut the other of these