ABSTRACT
From church they repaired to the inn, where a plentiful dinner was served up, on which Cantwell feasted with canine appetite, observing that nothing gave a keener stomach than preaching. He then applied himself seriously to the bottle, garnishing the entertainment with many humorous jokes and anecdotes, in which he greatly abounded. The discourse, at last, fell on the rector, whom he reprobated in the most unchristian manner, as an heretical Arminian, who ought to be expelled the church. Our hero could not help observing, ‘That, however Mr. Cantwell might excel his antagonist in the arts of harangue, he / thought he was rather deficient in that spirit of meekness, humility, and benevolence, which ought most to distinguish the Christian: that his doctrines, indeed, tended more to fill up his hearers’ minds with spiritual pride and cruelty, than to mend their hearts and conduct in their station; to make them rely entirely on belief and opinion, which were in a great measure independent on us, and like power, which is indifferent in itself, and only laudable or condemnable according to the use to which it is applied: that those popular tricks to inflame the passions, were as often employed in the service of error and imposture, as of truth, and indeed were unfriendly to her cause, as she most required a calm and dispassionate examination: and, in fact, that the Author and primitive teachers of Christianity, never adopted those canting inflammable modes of address, but strongly reprehended them.’
