Page images
PDF
EPUB

muft confider me as called away by an imperious PROVI-
DENCE; and, I truft, they will be provided with a Succeffor
more than equal, in every respect, to their late affectionate
paftor. I think it necessary to say in this place, that the
doctrines I have preached unto them for fix and twenty
years, I ftill confider as the truths of GOD. I have lived
in them myself, and found comfort from them. I have
faithfully made them known to others, as thousands can
bear me witness; we have seen them effectual to the
pulling down the strong holds of fin and Satan, in a variety
of cafes; and I hope to die in the fame faith, and to find
them the power of GOD unto the falvation of my own foul
in eternal glory by CHRIST JESUS. I mean to preach the
fame doctrines, the LORD being my helper, during the
whole remainder of my life, wherefoever my lot may be
caft. I am not weary of the work of the facred miniftry.
I have, indeed, often been weary in it, but never of it. I
pray God my fpiritual vigor, life, and power, and love,
and usefulness may abound more and more to the end of
my Chriftian warfare.

"Awake, my dormant zeal! forever flame
"With gen'rous ardors for immortal fouls;

"And may my head, and tongue, and heart, and all,
* Spend and be spent in service fo divine."

"But, if you had fo many objections to the Established "Church, why did you enter into it? Why did you con"tinue to officiate fo long in it? And why did you not "decline it long ago?"

I will tell you honeftly.-All my habits, and the prejudices of my education run in favour of the Church. My father and friends were in the fame habits. All my younger days, I took for granted every thing was right, nor had I any fufpicions to the contrary. If I had fo ferioufly confidered these things thirty years ago, I humbly hope I fhould have acted agreeable to my convictions. I recollect, indeed, about that time, to have had my fears that fome things among us were not as they fhould be. I faw my own eyes, that almost all the Clergy, with whom I was acquainted, were practically wrong at least. Between

with

Z3

them

C

them and the precepts of the Gospel there seemed a perfect contraft. My mind, however, was but little informed upon religious fubjects. I was diftruftful of my own judgment, and thought it prudent to be guided by the judgment of thofe, of whofe piety I had a good opinion. Few young perfons think deeply and folidly, and fewer till have reading and experience fufficient to enable them to form an accurate estimate upon fuch intricate queftions. Indeed, moft men, in the earlier ftages of life, are led by the prejudices of education, and the example of thofe with whom they converfe, as I was. There is, moreover, so much that is excellent in the Articles, Homilies, and common ·Forms of our Church, that it cannot be a matter of wonder, if unenlightened and inexperienced young men, who are either carlefs about all religion, or whofe defires are good, and intentions fimple, fhould comply with what they hear fpoken of in terms of high approbation, and fee practifed every day by their fuperiors both in age, rank, and learning. The idea too, that we have left the Church of Rome because of her delufions, and are members of a Reformed and Proteftant community, has no little weight with the larger part of candidates for the facred miniftry.

I am well aware, that many of the most serious and ufeful of my clerical brethren are of an opinion very different from me refpecting the Established Religion of this country. It is not long fince a Clergyman of this defcription told me, in a manner extremely emphatical, that "our Church is all

pure and without fpot." I was furprized at the affertion, from a confcientious man; but I have no material objection to any perfon's enjoying his own fentiments in peace. I claim the fame liberty, and defire nothing farther. Earnefly wifhing fuccefs to the minifterial labours of every good man, whether in the Establishment or out of it, and without either condemning or approving one de

This brings to my mind a remark that Mr. WHISTON ufed frequently to make upon the very learned and excellent Bishop GIBSON, That he feemed to think the Church of England, as it just then happened to be, established by modern laws and cuftoms, came down from "heaven with the Athanafian creed in its hand." Bing Dict, Att. GIBSON.

nomination

nomination or another, I obey the painful dictates of my own mind. Poffibly I am miftaken. If I am fo, it is to be lamented, becaufe I prefer my prefent fituation to most others I know of in England. If I had been disposed to leave it, I have not been without opportunity. Twenty years ago, the late JOHN THORNTON, Efq. of Clapham, near London, voluntarily offered to procure me better preferment, if I would accept of it; but I told him, after expreffing my gratitude, that DIVINE PROVIDENCE feemed to have placed me where I was, and I could not think of quitting my ftation, merely for the fake of a better living; till the time came that the fame PROVIDENCE fhould call me away. That time feems to me to be now come; fince I cannot any longer keep my church and retain my honour, in obeying the dictates of confcience. In my opinion, this is a providential call to quit my ftation, though I never expect to be fo happily circumstanced again. I know well what pain fuch a determination will give my dear people, but, with all due regard to the feelings of my friends, L muft confider, that I am amenable, in the first place, to the great HEAD of the Church for my conduct, and must, on the highest confiderations, endeavour to conduct myself agreeably to his pleasure. After a thousand defects, both in my public miniftrations and private conduct, I can almoft fay, I have done my beft to promote as well the tem poral as fpiritual interefts of the town of Macclesfield; and I heartily with my Succeffor may be more acceptable, more heavenly minded, more laborious, more useful, and more fuccefsful in winning fouls to CHRIST..

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"To all this, I am aware, it will be objected, that I "am taking a very difreputable ftep, and that a vast majority of the men of fenfe and learning around me are of "a different opinion."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Very true. I admit every thing that can be faid on this fcore, in the utmoft latitude. But a paffage or two of our SAVIOUR'S difcourfes is a fufficient fupport against all obloquy of this nature. Thefe monopolifers of fenfe and learning muft answer for themfelves, and I must give an account unto Gop for my own conduct.. I confider myself as a fhadow that paffeth away. I feel the infirmities of Z 4

[ocr errors]

nature

nature coming on, and death ftands ready at the door to fummon me before the bar of my REDEEMER. It is, therefore, of confequence we act now as we fhall wish we had acted then. At that trial, no man can be responsible for his brother:-Every one that bath forfaken houses, or brethren, or fifters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for MY SAKE and the GOSPEL'S, fhall receive an hundred fold now, with perfecutions, and in the world to come eternal life. Matt. xix. 29. Mark x. 29, 30.

Whosoever shall be ashamed of ME and of MY WORDS, in this adulterous and finful generation, of him also shall the SON of MAN be ashamed, when he shall come in the glory of his FATHER with the holy angels. Mark viii. 38.

"Why are you fo fqueamish in little matters? Why << not make yourself eafy, and conduct yourself like the "reft of your clerical brethren?"

To tell you the truth, candid reader, whofoever you may be, I have long and earneftly endeavoured to quiet my conscience, and to reconcile it to my prefent situation. I have used every method in my power for this purpose. I have pleaded the example of others, great men, good men, useful men; I have foothed it; I have defifted from reading, thinking, examining; I have pleaded the wishes of my friends, the usefulness of my minifterial labours; the difagreeableness of changing my fituation, and forming new connections; the extreme inconvenience of giving up my present income; &c. &c. but after all I can do, confcience follows me from place to place, and thunders in my ear, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul? or, what fhall a man give in exchange for his foul?—He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth fon or daughter. more than me, is not worthy of me and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. that findeth his life shall lose it; and be that lofeth his life for my fake fhall find it.

He

How would you conduct yourself in fuch a cafe? According to the thirty-fixth Canon we are willingly and ex animo to fubfcribe, that the book of Common Prayer, and of ordering of Bishops, Priefs, and Deacons, containeth in

it nothing contrary to the Scriptures; and that we acknowledge all and every the thirty-nine Articles, befides the Ratification, to be agreeable to the Word of GOD*.

Gop of my fathers! what a requirement is this? Can I lift up my hand to heaven and fwear by HIм that liveth for ever and ever, that I do willingly and ex animo fubfcribe as is legally required? And can any man living thus fubfcribe, who has thoroughly confidered the fubject? We muft fhuffle and prevaricate in fome things, fay and do what we will. I myself strongly approve the general strain of the doctrines of our Church; but then here is no choice. It must be willingly and ex animo all and every thing! There is no medium.

And can I (among other things which are to be fubscribed) believe from my foul, before the Searcher of hearts, who requireth truth in the inward parts, and in the

As to Mr. PALEY'S fcheme of fubfcribing the thirty-nine Articles, as articles of peace, it is all fophiftry, and fuch as an honest man should be ashamed to avow. I admire the abilities of the man, but deteft his recommending prevarication to the Clergy. See his very able and popular work, entitled, Moral and Political Philofophy, b. 3. p. 1. ch. 22. p. 180. edit. 1.

GIS

[ocr errors]

ap

Mr. PALEY is very juftly reprehended by the excellent Mr. BORNE. "The opinion which Mr. PALEY maintains," fays he, pears to me not only unfupported by argument, but likely to be productive of confequences highly pernicious. That fubfcription may be juftified without an actual belief of each of the Articles, as I understand Mr. PALEY to intimate, is a gratuitious affumption. On this point let the Articles fpeak for themfelves. Why is an Article continued in its place, if it be not meant to be believed? If one may be figned without being believed, why not all? By what criterion are we to diftinguish thofe which may be fubfcribed by a person who thinks them falfe, from thofe which may not? Is not the prefent mode of fubfcriptions virtually the fame as if each Article were feperately offered to the fubfcriber? And in that cafe, could any man be juftified in fubfcribing one which he difbelieved?"

"No circumftance," he adds, " could have a more direct tendency to enfnare the confciences of the Clergy; no circumftance could afford the enemies of the established church a more advantageous occafion of charging her minifters with infincerity, than the admiffion of the opinion, that the Articles may fafely be fubfcribed without a conviction of their truth, taken feverally, as well as collectively. That opinion I have feen maintained in publications of inferior note, but I could not, without particular furprize and concern, behold it avowed by a writer of fuch authority as Mr. PALEY."

face

« EelmineJätka »