rting
extacy, and declared herself now sure of salvation, as "she suffered for
righteousness-sake," and would bear her cross with patience. He
protested he knew not how to act, since, if he treated her with
kindness, she was in despair, calling herself a lost soul, applying to
her own case the woe denounced on those with whom the world is at peace,
and complaining that she had no longer "a thorn in the flesh to buffet
her." A disconsolate mother implored Dr. Beaumont to interfere and
support her authority with her daughter, who, misunderstanding their
preacher's encomiums on the sufficiency of faith, abandoned herself to
antinomian licentiousness, asserting, that "it was the law which had
created sin," but that the elect were free from the curse of the law.
One father was ruined by children, who refused to "labour for the meat
that perisheth." Another came in the deepest distress, lamenting that
his son was committed to prison for having joined a band of fanatical
desperadoes, who publicly plundered their neighbours, declaring that
they were now superior to the commandments, and were prophets appointed
to set up the empire of King Jesus, and restore those times "when
believers had all things in common." In some of these instances Dr.
Beaumont was enabled to enlighten the bewildered judgment; but when the
errors of the imagination were fortified by licentious passions, or a
perverse disposition, he could only give comfort to the afflicted
relations by confirming them in a clearer view of divine truth.

But the Doctor's greatest trouble proceeded from those frequent visitors
who came to complain to him of the state of their neighbours' souls, and
to vaunt their own spiritual gifts and happy security. To these he could
be of no use, nor is it any reflection on his learning and abilities, to
say he was often posed by a class of disputants, who, wanting a previous
acquaintance with those general topics of information which are
necessary to a clear and true view of the question, presume to handle
the most abstruse and profound topics of theology, while unable to see
the force of their opponent's reasonings, or to attend to the
development of the false hypothesis on which their notions are founded.
These people, being wise in their own conceits, gloried in their errors,
mistaking spiritual pride for piety, and censorious curiosity for
concern for their neighbours' souls. The spirit of "Stand apart, I am
holier and wiser than t