Page images
PDF
EPUB

good fenfe, and knowledge of the Scriptures and of mankind, which they discover; and on account of the very

extra

large a portion of time to be trusted entirely in the hands of the common people. It is too much to be spared from that facred day, the whole of which even when most religiously obferved, is hardly fufficient to counteract the bad impreffions of the other fix days of the week. On the due obfervance of this day, and the appropriation of a large portion of it to facred purposes, depends, I am convinced, the very existence of religion in this country ."-Bishop Horfley complains, that the Devil frequently gets one half of the people, and the Sectaries the other half, through "the lazy practice" which obtains among the Clergy, in regard to their Sunday duties n.-From the Divines in question, however, we hear of little but the evils of excess in the duties of this day. All hours are "unfeasonable" for religious exercises, except thofe in which they choose to labour; all efforts are extravagant except those which they make; and “ any additional attendance on the church," they fay, "would give a puritanical aspect to the Sabbath, and throw a pharifaical gloom over the moft cheerful religion in the world h."

66

The 61ft Canon requires that " Every Minister shall prepare children for confirmation." This, in Bishop Butler's judgment, cannot properly be done without perfonal conference. Other Prelates ftrongly enforce the duty of catechifingk. The 59th Canon requires that upon every Sunday and Holiday, the Minister shall for half an hour or more, examine and inftru& the youth and ignorant perfons of his parish, in the ten commandments, the articles of the belief, &c." Is no more then implied in this duty than occafionly hearing children repeat the catechifm? Is every thing beyond this fchifmatical? Another duty to which our Office obliges us is, the Visitation of the fick. For our assistance in a part of this Work, our Church has provided us a form of words, leaving us in the rest to exhort and admonish according to our discretion, as the cafe may require, to " exhort the fick perfon after her form, or other like." The 67th Canon fays, "The Minister fhall refort unto the fick,... to inftruct and com

fort,

(g) Charge, 1790, p. 14. Letters, p. 70; above 234; &c. don, Durham.

(n) Ch. 1800.

(i) Charge as above.

(h) See Mr. Polwhele's (k) Lon

ordinary degree of talents, learning, labour, and piety, which were united and exerted in their formation :- -We believe, after fully examining for ourselves, and attending to the most legitimate rules of interpretation, that they are fupported by the true and genuine fenje of Scripture.

fort them in their diftrefs, according to the order of the Communion Book, if he be no preac er: or if he be a preacher, then as he fhall think moft needful and convenient." And thus is this duty, and this manner of performing it, enforced by our Prelates. "In many cafes," the Bishop of Durham, carneftly recommending diligence in this work, obferves, "the funeral service might be used with almost as much propriety as the office for the fick.... It tends, therefore, greatly to improve this feafon of affliction, where the Minifter anticipates the call (of the fick or their friends). Such vifits of neighbourly inquiry might, I prefume, eafily be converted into occafions of religious inftruction. The earlier vifits might be allotted both to general and appropriate converfation and inftruction; the office for the fick being reserved for cafes of danger." Much good, Bishop Hornley also fuppofes may be done," by a cheerful, unwearied affiduity in the charitable office of visiting the dying and the fick." And, “ Upon thefe occafions," his Lordship obferves, "You will not think it enough to repeat the prayers at the bed-fide, which the church has provided, but you will make inquiry into the actual state of the fick person's foul; that you may administer such advice or confolation, as his case may demand." Yet one circumftance by which the schism and fanaticism of fome Evangelical Minifters are thought to be proved unqueftionably, is, that they "vifit the fick, and use not the prescribed forme." The regard fhown to the Canons which respect Simony and Refidence has been noticed above

What a pity then it is, that the anxiety of any Minifters about their Brethren's fuppofed errors of excess, should induce them so entirely to overlook their own notorious errors of defect! What a pity it is, that in this most important of all services, remiffness fhould be honourable, and only zeal a difgrace! The whole of our prefent object, however, is to show, that although we have an equal regard for the Difcipline as for the Doctrine of our Church, we must not confider every thing a violation of her Laws, and an oppofition to her Gover nors which fome perfons would infinuate to be fo.

(a) Ch. 1797, p. 31. (b) Ch. 1800, p. 23. (c) See Mr. Polwhele's Third Letter, p. 26.

CHAP. IX.

The Recapitulation and Conclufion.

HERE

ERE then the Reader is requested to fum up the evidence which has been adduced; to obferve its various bearings and concentration on our point; and hence,to form his conclufion. The leading Question, he will recollect, is, Whether our doctrines or thofe of our opponents most refemble the plain, genuine, and primitive doctrines of the Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies, of the Church of England * ? And, in this review of the fubject, let him attend,

First, to the arguing against our opponents, from their conduct in Subscription, their own Conceffions, and the Complaints of our Bishops. Let him confider whether they can be expected to believe and teach according to this plain and primitive sense of thefe Articles, who avow that they do not confider them as propofitions to be believed; who tell us exprefsly that they have a new and acquired fenfe in which they are honestly fubfcribed; or, who lament that, in confequence of the errors of thofe times, they contain many doctrines which are objectionable, and on which they openly plead for latitude or reformation? Let him obferve the language of these Gentlemen refpe&ting the inaccuracy and enthusiasm of certain of our Articles, and the effects of age on fuch compofitions, Let him hear the moft refpectable

(n) Above, p. 17. (q) Ibid. p. 36-42.

(0) Ibid. p. 17-30.

(p) Ibid. p. 30-36.

of them expressly and repeatedly acknowledging, that " a defection from the church is widely extended, and a furrender of its orthodox principles called for, even by its own fons:" "that many are defirous, at this time, to make a change in the doctrine of the national church; fome of these Philofophers and Scholars; fome even Minifters of the church" that "our ableft Divines have gradually departed from fome rigorous interpretations of the articles that prevailed at firft:" that it "is juftly thought to be a great and crying abuse, that our Preachers neglect the gospel, and take what they call good natural religion into the pulpit," "more in the manner of Ariftotle than of Chrift:" and that it is "well known that the Articles lean to our fide of the queftion." Let him fay whether fuch great Prelates as Secker, Porteus, Horne, Horfley, and Barrington, are not competent judges on this fubject; and then perufe the plain, full, unequivocal, and decifive teftimony by which they prove this departure from the Articles. Let him obferve these most unimpeachable witneffes at once maintaining the existence of this deviation, affigning the causes of it, lamenting its evils, and labouring with all their energy for its correction ; recommending, in the place of it, with the utmost pious zeal and eloquence, the very ftyle of preaching by which we are characterized, and which we here defend. The Reader who has attentively confidered only these particulars, will perhaps have begun to think, that, whatever becomes of our cafe, the pofition of our opponents must be difficult to maintain. He is requested, however, for further fatisfaction refpecting both, to review next,

Our investigation of the real fense of the Articles, and doctrines of the Reformers; and our appeal to these umpires, on the question. And here he will particularly remark, that the Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy of our church, each mutually illustrate and confirm the natural and full sense of

r) Above, p. 44-99.

the other that we are bound to the plain, literal, grammatical and full meaning of the Articles, and to one determined fenfe, by the title and preamble annexed to them*: that the object and fituation of our Reformers, placed between two oppofite extremes, would induce them to use the great eft caution in the expreffion of their fentiments; as they could not exprefs themselves too ftrongly against one class of errors without encouraging the other: that the Confeffions of the Martyrs, Nowell's Catechifin, Jewell's Apology, and every other public and approved Writing of our Reformers, confirm the fame interpretation"; that our opponents betray the weakness of their caufe by the omiffion of this, and a recurrence to illegitimate evidence*: that the Authorities which the founders of our church refpected, the common doctrines of the Reformation, the Body of the Confeffions of the Proteftant Churches, and efpecially the Works of their great model St. Austin, alfo fully justify our notions: that, as fully appears from the unanimous teftimony of men of all fentiments, their other Writings, and the Conceffions and reafonings of Arminians, the private fentiments of our Reformers were those now usually termed calviniftic; that on this ground alone we might well fettle the whose question at iffue, these fentiments being uniformly discarded by our opponents, and, under the restrictions specified above, ufually recognized by us: But, that from all these confiderations together, it appears most unquestionably,

That the founders of our Church meant, at the leaft, to eftablish all they have expressed, in our public forms; that on many occafions they went beyond what is neceffarily implied in the letter of the Articles, and discovered fentiments still further from the Divinity we oppofe; but that they never, by any means, abridged or restricted the full and natural fenfe

(6) Ibid. p. 45. (w) P. 55-64. (z) P. 69-93.

(t) Ibid. p. 45-48 (x) P. 57 and 68.

(a) P. 93-97.

(v) P. 48-55. (y) P. 64-68.

« PreviousContinue »