ing presumptuously into the ark,* and Uzza, for stretching out his hand to support it,† and Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost, and can the sacred name of God, and the doctrines, the rites, and sacraments of Christianity, be trifled with, profaned, and prostituted, to purposes of worldly interest and ambition, without danger of divine resentment? Is there not a time coming when God will visit for these things?§ The signs of the times seem strongly to prognos ticate some approaching great events. Christianity is now passing a strict examination: it shuns not, but invites the most critical search. The natural consequence of this free enquiry will be, that superstition will totter, and that all claims and pretensions, of a spiritual kind, which are not founded on truth, will fall before the axe laid at the root. The freedom of thinking, in which the present age glories, is, indeed, dissipating apace the charm of spiritual sorcery, by which the understandings and consciences of men in the former ages were enthralled. But it is too natural to the human mind to run into extremes: and from having broken the chains of gloomy superstition, to rush headlong into the wilds of disconsolate infidelity. Into this extreme of infidelity, men of all ranks, as well in high life as among their inferiors, are hastily running. And it seems, my lords, to require no spirit of prophecy to say, whither these things tend, and what their end will + Sam. vi. 7. 1 Sam. vi. 19. $ Acts v. 5. It was the complaint of the late excellent bishop Burnet, (and there are many others, no doubt, of my lords the bishops, who can sincerely make the same,) that the ember weeks were the burden and grief of his life, and that the things that he was then called to see and to perform, with regard to the candidates who came to be ordained, did often tear his heart, and pierced his soul, and made him cry out, oh! that had the wings of a dove! Pastoral Care, Preface to the ad. edition shortly be! It is easy to foresee that they directly tend to the utter demolition not only of the present ecclesiastical system, but of all established forms and offices of religion: that the sceptical and loose principles, which spread through the land, are the dangerous artillery which the enemy is playing upon the high places and the strong holds of the church; that, therefore, prudence strongly dictates, that we not only desert, but level, what are called the outworks which we know to be untenable; and call in every friendly hand to unite, as one body, in the common defence. It was, perhaps, with little less than a prophetic spirit that a very learned and worthy prelate has expressed his wish,-"That something was "done to convince the world that the clergy of "the church are not averse to a reformation of "some parts of her public service; since, other"wise, they may give offence by their obstinacy "and seeming infallibility; and, if a storm "should arise, may run a risk of having the tree "torn up by the roots, which they might have "saved by a little pruning." The period, my lords, is approaching in which the angel is commanded to thrust in his sharp sickle, and to gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, (i. e. of the mundane, or worldly church,) because her grapes are fully ripe.+ A disposition seems moving in all nations around us, in nations where it could least have been expected to appear, to scrutinize and retrench the exorbitant claims and revenues of the church, and to demand some of the immense 'superfluous wealth of that opulent ally for the pressing exigencies of the state. And if, in countries where popery reigns in all its rigour, these retrenchments are made, what may not justly be expected in our Essay on Spirit, preface, page 53. + Rev. xiv. 14. own, where dissoluteness and want of principle (as the pious Archbishop above observes) spread widely among the higher rank, whilst the lowerare divided into numerous sects, not zealously attached to the pomp of the established worship; and whilst the emissaries from Rome are seducing thousands into their tents, all whose power and cunning will be exerted to the utmost, on the least inviting occasion, to demolish the fortress whose artillery hath severely galled them, and upon whose ruins they hope again to raise their exploded superstition to its ancient grandeur. Is there any way more likely to procure a lengthening of tranquillity than, as the prophet advises, to break off iniquity by righteousness, to correct mistakes, to supply deficiences, to remove the rocks upon which the integrity of thousands have been miserably wrecked, to demolish separating walls, and to extend the arms of the church as wide as those of Christ and the apostles were extended. That church alone, which is built upon this Catholic and wide bottom, is likely to stand firm and to sustain the shock of rising storms. Having trespassed, I fear, too much upon your lordship's patience already, I shall proceed no further than to remind you, that, as your lordships have the glory of standing in the first rank of the defenders of our holy faith, and many learned men of your body have, with irresistible force pleaded the cause of Christianity against its avowed enemies, so there is a service, yet behind, to which God, your country, and the interest of religion, seem loudly to call you forth. Christianity, my lords, lies bleeding of the wounds it hath received in the house of its friends; wounds by far the most dangerous of any under which it suffers: there are none more able than your lordships to apply a healing hand. The high reverence and esteem in which your lordships are held by all ranks of the clergy, and the influence you are possessed of in the legislature, will give a weight and success to any salutary counsels your lordships may propose, which cannot so easily be obtained from any other quarter. Through the favour of heaven, we are blessed with a government which, there is reason to believe, needs only to be petitioned by those who have the administration of spiritual affairs, to ease them of any grievances, to supply any defects, and to alter or reform whatever, in the present system, may need to be reformed. Many of your predecessors, my lords, have been so penetrated by the love of truth, so devoted to what they believed to be the genuine doctrines of Christianity, that they suffered bonds, imprisonment, and even a tormenting death itself, rather than support, by their influence or example, the cause of superstition and error. But your lot, my lords, is cast in much happier times. You are so favourably circumstanced, that you have it in your power to forward the reformation of those corruptions in the English church which the wisest of your body presume not to defend; and at the same time, you may preserve your temporal emoluments, recover your declining influence in the Christian church, give peace to thousands of sincere, but at present aggrieved and offended Christians, enlarge and be enabled triumphantly to defend the catholic ground upon which alone the reformation can possibly be defended; and in short, may cause yourselves, to be considered by the present, and honoured and revered by future generations, as the illustrious friends of genuine and uncorrupted religion, of liberty, and of truth. But permit me, my lords, to remind you, that these advantages, even great as they are, vanish into nothing, when compared with the future glorious recompence which will await every sin cere friend to the interest of pure and undefiled religion, as it is delivered in the gospel of Jesus. You, my lords, are all hastening, and some of you very near to the invisible and eternal state. It must sometimes, surely, affect your minds in the hours of calm meditation, that you are to appear (stripped of every present flattering distinction) before Jesus Christ the supreme pastor and king of the church, in a character more peculiar, I might say more responsible, than that of other men. Can it be forgotten, that such extensive powers, such distinguished privileges in this life, must be strictly accounted for in the next? That your lordships may have the unspeakable satisfaction in life, the consolation at death, and the glory in a future state, of having exerted, with all the resolution and zeal of Christian bishops, the great powers of which you are possessed:-that, when your lordships shall soon stand (as it must, my lords, be very soon) before the supreme pastor, to render an account of your high station in the church, it may appear, to your everlasting honour, that you were ready not to risk only, but even to sacrifice every worldly interest, in order to rescue the Christian name from the reproach you saw it suffer, prays with great sincerity, My Lords, Your Lorships Most obedient, &c. A CHRISTIAN. 5 |