nd manner of address, these must be determined according to
the different circumstances of persons, &c.; but you will always,
in the use of means, consider the great end; and, therefore, your
applications will of course vary. You will keep in view the pattern of
the Gospel preacher, St. Paul, who 'became all things to all men,
that he might save some.' Here is a nice trial of christian prudence.
Accordingly, in every case you will distinguish between what is
indispensable, and what is variable; between what is divine, and what
is of human authority. I mention this, because men are apt to deceive
themselves in such cases; and we see the traditions and ordinances of
men frequently insisted on with more rigor than the commandments of
God, to which they are subordinate. Singularities of less importance,
are often espoused with more zeal than the weighty matters of God's
law. As in all points we love ourselves, so, especially, in our
hypotheses. Where a man has, as it were, a property in a notion, he is
most industrious to improve it, and that in proportion to the labor
of thought he has bestowed upon it; and, as its value rises in
imagination, he is, in proportion, unwilling to give it up, and dwells
upon it more pertinaciously than upon considerations of general
necessity and use. This is a flattering mistake, against which we
should guard ourselves."

Unmindful of such counsel, the eagerness of Wesley to effect
reformation was pressed too precipitately and carried too far. His
sermons had such direct reference, not only to the state of affairs,
but the conduct of individuals, that they were shrunk from as personal
allusions. His zeal was excessive, and his practice exclusive.[1]

[Footnote 1: Mr. SOUTHEY has this remark--"He was accused of making
his sermons so many satires upon particular persons; and for this
cause his auditors fell off; for though one might have been very well
pleased to hear others preached at, no person liked the chance of
being made the mark himself."--Moreover, "following the rubric, in
opposition to the practice of the English church, he insisted upon
baptizing children by immersion, and refused to baptize them if the
parents did not consent to this rude and perilous method. Some persons
he would not receive as sponsors, because they were not communicants;
and when one of the most pious men in the Colony earnestly desired to
be admitted to the communion, he refused to admit him because he was
a