Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

I am well aware that many of the most serious and useful of my clerical brethren are of an opinion very different from me respecting the established religion of this country. It is not long since a clergyman of this description told me, in a manner extremely emphatical, that "our church is all pure and without spot."(4) I was surprised at the assertion, from a conscientious man; but I have no material objection to any person's enjoying his own sentiments in prace. I claim the same liberty, and desire nothing farther. Earnestly wishing success to the ministerial labours of every good man, whether in the establishment or out of it, and without even condemning or approving one denomination or another, I obey the painful dictates of my own mind. Possibly I am. mistaken. If I am so, it is to be lamented, because I prefer my present situation to most others I know in England. If I had been disposed to leave it, I have not been without opportunity. Twenty years ago, the late John Thornton voluntarily offered to procure me a better preferment, if I would accept of it; but I told him, after expressing my gratitude, that Divine Providence seemed to have placed me where I was, and I could not think of quitting my station, merely for the sake of a better living; till the time came that the same Providence should call me away. That time seems to me to be now come; since I can no longer keep my church and retain my honour, in obeying the dictates of conscience. This is the providential call to quit my station, though I never expect to be so happily circumstanced again. I know well what pain such a determination will give my people; but, with all due regard to the feelings of my friends,

(4) This brings to mind a remark that Whiston used frequently to make upon Gibson, "That he seemed to think the church of England, as it just then happened to be, established by modern laws and customs, came down from heaven with the Athanasian creed in its hand."

I must consider, that I am amenable, in the first -place, to the great Head of the church for my conduct, and must, on the highest considerations, endeavour to conduct myself agreeably to his pleasure. After a thousand defects, both in my public ministrations and private conduct, I can say, I have done my best to promote as well the temporal as spiritual interests of the town of Macclesfield; and I heartily wish my successor may be more acceptable, more heavenly minded, more laborious, more useful and more successful in winning souls to Christ.

To this, it will be objected, "that I am taking a very disreputable step, and that a vast majority of the men of sense and learning around me are of a different opinion."

I admit every thing that can be said on this score, in the utmost latitude. But a passage or two of our Saviour's discourses is a sufficient support against all obloquy of this nature. These monopolizers of sense and learning must answer for themselves, and I must give an account unto God for my conduct. I consider myself as a shadow that passeth away. I feel the in ́firmities of nature coming on, and death stands ready at the door to summon me before the bar of my Re deemer. It is, therefore, of consequence we act now as we shall wish we had acted then. At that trial, no man can be responsible for his brother:-" Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, shall receive an hundred fold now, with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful 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."

"Why are you so squeamish in little matters? Why not make yourself easy, and conduct yourself like the rest of your clerical brethren?".

I have long and earnestly endeavoured to quiet my conscience, and to reconcile it to my present 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 scothed it; I have desisted from reading, thinking, examining; I have pleaded the wishes of my friends, the usefulness of my ministerial labours; the disagreeableness of changing my situation, my forming new connections; the extreme inconvenience of giving up my present income; &c. &c. but after all I can do, conscience follows me from place to place, and thunders in my ear, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?-He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son 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. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

How would you conduct yourself in such a case? According to the thirty-sixth Canon we are willingly and ex animo to subscribe, that the book of Common Prayer, and of ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Scriptures; and that we acknowledge all and every the thirty-nine articles, besides the ratification, to be agreeable to the word of God. (5)

(5) As to Mr. Paley's sheme of subscribing the thirty-nine ar ticles, as articles of peace, it is all sophistry, and such as an honest man should be ashamed to avow. I admire his abilities, but detest his recommending prevarication to the clergy. Paley is very justly reprehended by Gisborne. The opinion which Paley maintains appears to me not only unsupported by argument, but likely to be productive of consequences highly pernicious. That subscription may be justified without an actual belief of each of the articles, as I understand Paley to intimate, is a gratuitous assumption. On this point let the articles speak for

God of my fathers! what a requirement is this? Can I lift up my hand to heaven and swear by Him

themselves. Why is an article continued in its place, if it be not meant to be believed? If one may be signed without being believed, why not all? By what criterion are we to distinguish those which may be subscribed by a person who thinks them false, from those which may not? Is not the present mode of subscription virtually the same as if each article were separately offered to the subscriber? And in that case could any man be justified in subscribing one which he disbelieved? No circumstance could have a more direct tendency to ensnare the consciences of the -clergy; no circumstance could afford the enemies of the established church a more advantageous occasion of charging her ministers with insincerity, than the admission of the opinion, that the articles may safely be subscribed without a conviction of their truth, taken severally, as well as collectively. That opinion I have seen maintained in publications of inferior note, but I could not without particular surprise and concern, behold it avowed by a writer of such authority as Paley."

Before the reader condemns the author of this Plea for Religion, because of his leaving the church, and the various reflections he has made upon the bishops and clergy, he requests that Burnet's Conclusion of the History of his Own Times, may be thoroughly read and considered. The bishops and clergy of the land should be extremely familiar both with that, and his Pastoral Care. It is high time to wake out of sleep.

The number of persons, who declined officiating in the church of England, upon the conditions required, in the last century, was upwards of two thousand. Milton was brought up and sent to the university with a view to the church, but when he came seri ously to consider the conditions upon which he must enter, he declined the sacred office. "To the church by the intentions of my parents and friends, I was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions till coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who would take orders must subscribe, slave, and take an oath withal; which unless he took with a conscience that would stretch, he must either strain, perjure, or split his faith; I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing."

There have been some respectable persons in our own day, who have declined entering into the church of England from objections entertained to our oaths and subscriptions; others have complied with all our forms and ceremonies, but have been obliged to Strain and shuffle, and have never known what peace of mind and a good conscience afterwards meant; and others have been so

that liveth for ever and ever, that I do willingly and ex animo subscribe as is legally required? And can any man living thus subscribe, who has thoroughly considered the subject? We must shuffle and prevaricate in some things, say 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 subscribed, believe from my soul, before the Searcher of hearts, who requireth truth in the inward parts, and in the face of the whole christian world declare, that, "whosoever doth not hold the Catholic faith”—as explained in the Athanasian creed-" and keep it whole and undefiled, shall, without doubt, perish everlastingly?"-This proposition we are enjoined, not only to believe ourselves, but to affirm that we do willingly and ex animo subscribe to it, as being agreeable to the word of God; and then we must openly profess our faith in it fourteen times every year. I am not unacquainted that various manœuvres are made use of to render these harsh expressions palatable; but all illustrations and modifications of these sentences appear to me illusive. Burnet has said all that can be said upon them, but, to very little purpose. Honestly, therefore, did Tillotson declare to him, "The account given of Athanasius's creed seems to me no wise satisfactory. I wish we were well rid of it."—And so do I, for the credit of our common Christianity. It has been a mill-stone about the neck of many thousand worthy men. Declarations like these descended out of the

pressed and wounded in their minds, that they have given up their situations, after they have been already ordained. Blackburne was never at rest in his spirit; Tucker gives up several things among us as wrong; Robertson, Dyer, Evanson, and Wakefield all resigned their letters of orders; and have ceased to officiate as ministers in the establishment.

« AnteriorContinuar »