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adopt the language of Jerem. II. 13, with fufficient propriety; nor can it, I think, be deemed a breach of charity to make a direct application of Tim. IV, 3, to your cafe, and to every cafe of a fimilar nature. As you once were a member of the Church of England, it behoved you, before you left it, to lay before the particular minifter, under whofe care Providence had feen good to place you, the difficulties you felt, and the reasons, which feemed to call upon you to withdraw yourself. Had you done this, and he had been unable to remove your objections, you would have ftood clearer from the charge of fchifm, than you now do.

The three reafons, which you give for your feparation, confirm me in the opinion, that you have no good reafon to give; for the first two are founded on a mis-reprefentation of facts, and the third is founded only on your own imagination. In your first reafon, you apply 2 Cor. vi. 17, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, &c." to the Church of England. It is probable, that, in the Meeting-house, this text is often fo applied; but, if you think it rightly applied, I do not fee how you can, with a fafe confcience, attend the fervice of the Church of England at all. It is, however, a fad and uncharitable perverfion of the Apostle's meaning. He is fpeaking of the intercourfe, which the early Chriftians had with the heathens, and is warning his converts against the danger, into which fuch intercourfe led them, of being carried back again to the worship of idols, which were the gods of the heathens. If this text were rightly applied to the Church of England, you would be no more juftified in attending her fervice, than the early Chriftians would have been juftified in worshipping in the heathen temples. It is very proper to avoid affociating with ungodly people, who, by their example, &c. may lead you into wrong conduct; but this is a very different thing from leaving their worthip. Their worship may be right, though their general conduct is wrong. You cannot fay, that the worship of the Church of England is ungodly. Some of the profeffed members of the Church of England may be ungodly. It must be acknowledged, that too many of them are fo.

They are not all Israel, which are of Ifrael." But then you fhould remember, that you cannot know who are ungodly in their hearts. There is another, who judgeth. See Rom. xiv. 4, 10, 13. See alfo Jam. iv. 11, 12. Your business is with the worship of the Church of England, not with the character of its particular members. Heb. x. 25, which you quote as a justification of your affembling together for worship, does not come up to the purpose. I not only allow, but I infift upon it, that it is a duty to affemble for public worship; but then I contend, that the mode of affembling for this purpose ought to be fuch as is juftified by reafon and fcripture, and fanctioned by public authority. If this paffage juftified every mode of affembling for public worship, there could be no fuch thing as fchifm; at least, fchifm could not be a fin; and we know, that the Apoftle earnestly contends againft fchifm as a fin.

With refpect to your second reason, namely, that fome of the minifters of the Church of England deny, that there is any fuch thing as the pardon of fin in this world," I only atk, whether the particular minifter, under whom you were placed, denied this? and whether he omitted to read the abfolution? If fo, you had reafon to complain. If not, I can only fay, that you have been fadly mis-informed. Before you fuffered yourself to act upon fuch a fuppofition, you ought to have been well af

fured

fured of its truth, and to have experienced fome real fpiritual inconvenience from it; neither of which you can pretend. The private opinions of fome clergymen of the Church of England, who live you know not where, could be no good reafon for your feparation from the Church, even if their opinions had been as you ftate. What could that be to you, unless they had hindered you from the benefit of abfolution?

Your third reafon, namely, that " you have found more benefit to your foul under the Methodist miniftry than any other," being, as I faid, founded only on your own imagination, does not admit of any anfwer on the grounds of reason. You alone can be a judge of it. I can only fay, respecting it, that our imaginations are very deceitful things to build on, and that I wish to reft upon a firmer foundation.

I fend you a little book,* which I hope you will read with candour and attention. It is my with, that you may receive benefit from it, and purfue fuch a conduct as may be fatisfactory to yourself, and moft promote your happiness. I again exprefs my forrow, that you did not at firft, confult with the minifter of your parith, as in duty you were bound to do. I fear you are in the hands of teachers, who may find it flattering to themselves to keep you among them, and it can hardly be expected, that they will give you difinterefted advice. They are, however, fo inconfiftent with themfelves, that you may, in time, when you come to think for yourself, fee their inconfiftency. I happen to be able to give you an inftance. A Methodist teacher wrote to me, not long fince, requefting me to explain to him a difficult paffage of fcripture, on which, he faid, he had preached the Sunday before to a crouded audience; and he was afraid, that he had mis-interpreted the paffage, and incurred the guilt of leading the people into dangerous errors. He told me, in the fame letter, that the Spirit of Chrift had called him to preach the Golpel. Now, what inconfiftency is here! Can we believe, that the Spirit of Chrift fhould call a perfon to preach the Gofpel, and yet allow him, in his preaching, to lead the people into dangerous error? This letter I have now by me, and I confider it as a fignal proof, as well as Specimer, of the inconfiftencies, into which preachers of that defeription muft frequently fall. I am, &c.

E. P.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN,

I Am a new correfpondent, but we may, perhaps, in time be better acquainted, as I thall be happy to affift your excellent undertaking, not only as a purchaser, but a contributor.

Though no one is more ready to join in the merited compliment of "Gloria Vincenti !" yet I muft own, I think the Vincentian Controverfy has been, and may be, productive of much good, and ought not to be concluded prematurely. Other mafters, at leaft of the largeft feminaries, fhould alfo give the fame fatisfaction to the public refpecting their principles and modes of inftruction, that their illuftrious leader has done. The new mafter of Eton in particular, Dr. Goodall, might be expected not to be far behind hand. I mean not, however, to fuggeft anything refpe&ting this gentleman, whom I do not know, but I have introduced the fub

*Addrefs to the people called Methodis. Vol. III. Churchm. Mag. Aug. 1802. N

ject

66

ject merely for the fake of afking the following plain and open questions, Is there, or is there not, at Eton, at this very time, a book-fociety compofed of young pupil-mongers, who take in the Monthly Magazine, and other publications of that fort? And has not the British Critic, Peter Porcupine, &c. been unanimoufly voted out by them, with marks of derifion and contempt, fuch as Ah, poor Peter, not one vote for him, he! he he! &c. ?" This I look upon as an enquiry of the utmost importance; for, if the youth of our very firft families be configned for education to perfons of fuch principles, what can we expect, but that whig-clubs will be recruited and multiplied, 'till our religion and government, and every thing that is dear to us, be fwallowed up in the barathrum of jacobinical liberty, and

The Dev'l, and Bonaparte divide the prize?

I am, gentlemen, your's, &c.

OBSCURUS,

P. S. When a young man at College, 40 years ago, I noted in my Common-place Book, St. Paul's Tas μebodeias T8 Azaboλ8, (see p. 326 of your last Vol.) as the probable and appropriate definition of Methodisin, The propriety has not fince been leffened.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, London, 4th August, 1802. Feel myself under particular obligations for the honor you have done me, by inferting the letters I have heretofore taken the liberty of writing. I must now beg leave, through the medium of your excellent Mifcellany, to make a remark on the fubject of monumental infcriptions, which I am forry to obferve are too frequently, either by the badness of the grammar, or quaintnefs or ludicroufnefs of the expreffions, more calculated to raife. a fmile, than inspire that seriousness, which fuch fubjects ought to excite. I would, therefore, with fubmiffion propofe, that no epitaph (where there is any more than the name and age of the parties) fhould be permitted to be placed in any church or church-yard, until it had been revised and approved of by the Rector or Vicar of the parith; a fmall compenfation to whom for his trouble, as might be deemed reasonable, would not, I truft, be thought exorbitant by thofe who with to pay that tribute of respect, to the memory of their departed friends.

I am, gentlemen, your's, &c.

THEODOSIUS.

ON THE CRITICAL REVIEW OF MR. BASELEY's SERMONS. TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE, GENTLEMEN,

THO

your

HOUGH it does not appear to make any part of your plan to notice. the erroneous principles and improper conduct of the periodical critics, yet I think an occafional animadverfion upon them, would be fàtisfactory to many of readers. Whether this hint meets with your approbation or not, you will, I truft, allow an old correfpondent to occupy an early page of your useful Mifcellany, in remarking upon a criticifm which appeared in the CRITICAL REVIEW for June last, of Mr. Baseley's Volume of Sermons, recently published, and mentioned with due commendation in the critical department of your work.

The

The critic pecks in the outfet, at the two difcourfes on Liberty and Neceffity, the reafoning on which he says, "he is not sure that he rightly apprehends." This wears the face of candour, but it would have been more good-natured, and certainly it would have been more confiftent with the rules of found criticism, to have stated the pofitions which are fo extremely involved, as to have perplexed a fagacious reviewer "in the filence of his clofet." It is very eafy to charge a difcourfe or treatise with obfcurity and abfurdity, but the impartial bystander will naturally enquire for proofs of this obfcurity and abfurdity, elfe the critic will fall under the juft accufation of malice or ignorance. But why fhould there be a ftudied endeavour to fet a volume of fermons in an unfavourable light, by flightly obferving, that there are pofitions and conclufions in them which the reviewer does not rightly understand? It was his bufinefs to have studied the fubject and the reasoning upon it, with a little more closeness before he iffued forth his judicial opinion; and if he was not competent to the tafk, which it is pretty evident he was not, his temerity proves his difgrace.

But I wave this point, and proceed to another. The Critical Reviewer was certainly in a very ill-natured humour, when this Volume of Difcourfes lay before him: and the bile on his ftomach must have had a very pernicious influence upon his pericranium. Unfortunately Mr. Bafeley has chofen as a text for his Sermon on Religious Myfteries, the famous paffage 1 John v, 7. concerning the interpolation of which, fo much has been written and fo little proved.

The critic wonders that any man fhould venture to quote this text as genuine, and he wonders more, that a chaplain of the Bishop of Lincoln fhould preach upon it; and the reason why he wonders is, because the bishop has given up the authenticity of the verfe. And fo, because his lordfhip has yielded, and in my opinion too easily, to certain mathemati cal critics, who have been applying their fcale of proportions to the fcriptures, we are to follow his example. Much as I revere and respect this excellent prelate, I am bold enough to affert my liberty in this inftance, and on the folid footing of antiquity and the analogy of faith, I will not yield a particle of fcripture verity to any man whatever. If this application of the proportional fcale is to be admitted on all occafions of fcripture criticisms, I tremble for the confequences. As to the text's being wanting in more of the Greek MSS. than in the Latin, it is not fufficient to overthrow its authority even upon a mathematical mode of reafoning. For as the oppofition to the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity began in the Eastern Churches, the probability is, that the guilt of leaving out the paffage in queftion lies with them; and not the guilt of foifting it in upon

the Latins.

I am glad to fee that Mr. Bafeley has had the spirit to preach and print too upon this famous text, notwithstanding the conceffions made to the adverfaries of our faith, by writers of found orthodoxy and piety. But it is curious to fee a Critical Reviewer, who generally clamours about freedom of thought, liberty of private judgment, and independence of principle, blaming our author for not pinning, part at leaft, of his faith upon the fleeve of the Bishop of Lincoln, to whom he is chaplain.

I know not whether this reviewer be, as I have heard it whispered, a clergyman of the Established Church, or whether he is a fectary of the Socinian clafs. What makes me inclined to believe the former is, that

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the Report is marked with fomewhat more of decent clothing, than ufually diftinguishes the critiques of the Unitarian faction. But at all events, the article betrays an enmity to the corner ftone of Christianity, I mean the eternal godhead of our bleffed Saviour. I am, gentlemen, &c.

Auguft 9th, 1802.

IOTA.

ADMONITIONS IN TIME OF HARVEST. -Let us now fear the Lord our God, who giveth rain both the former and the latter, in his feafon: he referveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest. Jerem. v.24. IME and circumftances enhance the laudablenefs or the guilt of men's tempers and actions.-To offend a benefactor openly and noto. riously, at the time He is beftowing His LARGESS, would be condemned by all men, as the vileft ingratitude. To apply this :

Τ

In Harveft the fupreme benefactor, Almighty God, is giving us his bounty largely, therefore at fuch feafons if the ingatherers not only rob God of his due tribute of thankfulness and praise, but also profane His name, abufe the gifts of His providence to drunkennefs, and excefs, and affront him to His face, by words and ways too many to be expressed; this is to fin with crimson and Scarlet dye, and with higher aggravations than at other times.

We fpeak as to reafonable perfons; are not thefe things fo? Be perfuaded, then, to ftand in awe, and beg of God, for Chrift's fake, you may not thus fin. Watch and remember, that impiety in this feason is threefold impiety. Therefore,

I. Let mailers and fervants bear in mind the bright examples recorded of that wealthy and honourable hufbandman Boaz and his reapers, Ruth ii. 4. And Behold Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto his reapers, the Lord be with you; and they answered him, the Lord bless thee. May you do fo, and be bleifed!

II. Let it be confidered, that all the plenty on the earth is the Lord's: He is the proprietor, P. xxiv. 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world, and they who dwell therein. Pf. civ. 13, 14, 15, 27, et feq.

III. Confider alfo, it is at his pleasure whether there fhall be weeks of Harvest or not. When He pleafeth He faith to the Snow, be thou upon the earth likewife to the fmall rain, and to the great rain of His ftrength. He fealeth up every man's hand, that all men may know His work. Job xxxvii. 6, 7.-Surely they deferve the marks of His high difpleasure to whom it might be faid as in Jeremiah v. 24. Neither fay they in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God, who giveth rain, both the former and the latter in His feafon: He referveth unto us the appointed weeks of HARVEST. May it not be expected He will fay in his anger as in Hofea ii. 8, 9. For he did not know (i. e. did not confider) that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her filver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, &c.

IV. Further confider, your health, ftrength, and life are in His hand. He can fend upon you curfing, vexation, and rebuke in all you set your hand unto. He can fmite you with confumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and extreme burning, with the burning ague, and with the fword, &c. Deuter. xxviii. 20. 22. Levit. xxvi. 16. Oh! reverence the Almighty fpeaking, Deuter. xxxii. 39. See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive: I wound and I heal:

neither

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