Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/123

 take, his premises are false. He imagines himself to be what he is not. And therefore setting out wrong, the farther he goes, the more he wanders out of the way.

12. * Every Enthusiast then is properly a madman. Yet his is not an ordinary, but a religious madness. By religious, I do not mean, that it is any part of religion. Quite the reverse: religion is, the spirit of a sound mind: and consequently stands in direct opposition to madness of every kind. But I mean, it has religion for its object; it is conversant about religion. And so the Enthusiast is generally talking of religion, of God or the things of God: but talking in such a manner that every reasonable Christian may discern the disorder of his mind. Enthusiasm in general may then be described in some such manner as this: a religious madness arising from some falsely imagined influence or inspiration of God: at least, from imputing something to God which ought not to be imputed to him, or expecting something from God which ought not to be expected from him.

13. There are innumerable sorts of Enthusiasm. Those which are most common and for that reason most dangerous, I shall endeavour to reduce under a few general heads, that they may be more easily understood and avoided.

The first sort of Enthusiasm which I shall mention, is that of those who imagine they have the grace which they have not. Thus some ima